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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26324437">Finding Sanctuary</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petal_dancer/pseuds/Petal_dancer'>Petal_dancer</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petal_dancer/pseuds/Soft%20talk%20electric%20souls'>Soft talk electric souls (Petal_dancer)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Circus, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Edwardian Period, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Panic Attacks, Physical Abuse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:21:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>47,912</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26324437</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petal_dancer/pseuds/Petal_dancer, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petal_dancer/pseuds/Soft%20talk%20electric%20souls</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Around the turn of the century technology is progressing quickly. But for her, her whole world has turned upside down from living in with her parents for being a main act in Arcadia's Movement circus. Everything has come crashing around her as reality hits her. She needed to escape. Not from Neo Domino, but from his clutches. Running blindly into the woods wasn't the greatest idea, but it was the only idea she had at the time. She meets someone in the deep woods who can help her out.. But there is something peculiar about him..</p><p>** rewrite in progress**</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Fudou Yuusei/Izayoi Aki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Leaving Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/19389271">AB Negative</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifwegettherebysunset/pseuds/ifwegettherebysunset">ifwegettherebysunset</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I do not own or am associated with the Yugioh franchise! </p><p>Please read and review!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Neo domino was a city of no other, with technology progressing it was only a matter of time to where people could walk on water or go beyond their wildest dreams! Neo domino couldn’t hide all of the city’s abnormal and obscure thoughts. And it came to the senators' doorstep as his daughter Aki. She, a lovely young red rose haired girl who loved to garden. She had a mark on her arm that would occasionally fade in and out of existence, but not even the doctors could figure it out so it was labeled as a strange birthmark. From a young age she had bizarre and unexplainable powers. Primarily psychic powers, she had a force of nature that struck uneasy feelings into the strongest men around her. Time seemed to slow or come to a halt. Things seemed to float at inconspicuous times. Usually unnoticed by herself. Her parents knew that society wouldn’t accept her, and kept her in isolation in fear of what might happen to her. She was rarely outside without a chaperone even as she grew older. The unlucky ones were sent to the work district, commonly known as Satellite to “make themselves useful”. Harsh factory work and mysterious disappearances were not fit for Aki. So she stayed inside the gates of her lavish mansion for several years as her parents did what they could to make sure she could still be a “normal” girl.</p><p>As her powers grew stronger with no way to control them, they knew that they had to do something. There was very little choice, send her to Satellite or find someone to train her in secret. Just only to get her powers under control. Then she could become a spinster or find a man who was equally as “extraordinary” as herself. So then she would be happy. As the senator and his wife tried talking about the impending doom, they had to find someone to help her. In the paper, there was an advertisement “Arcadia’s Movement! The most magical show on earth! The show where the extraordinary becomes reality and the impossible is possible”. Senator Hideo glossed over it before one phrase caught his eye “if you know someone with extraordinary power, ask for ‘Divine’s wish’ with a phone number listed right next to it. It was the answer to their problem, about their daughter. The senator didn’t hesitate to dial the rotary phone in the kitchen. It was a blessing for her parents, but a nightmare beginning for Aki.</p><p>Aki didn’t take kindly to being told that she was being sent to stay with a strange man who basically runs a circus, no.. freak show. She begged, pleaded, and cried to not go, she promised to control her powers.. just as long as she didn’t have to live with that man! Her pleas fell on deaf ears as her parents brought in the man, the myth, ‘Divines wish’ into their house on an August afternoon. Their parents had let him inside, she decided to sneak out into the backyard garden. It was a safe haven for her in isolation. She had a burgundy dress topped with a white frilly pinafore with button hook button boots as she recently had a growth spurt around 13. She purposely waited until the last minute to start gardening that day in hopes that whoever ‘Divines wish’ was wouldn’t take her away that day because she wasn’t clean and pretty.</p><p>But that didn’t stop Divine from meeting her parents. The man had a dusty overcoat with a three piece suit underneath. He clearly had enough money to afford a new car despite parts being hard to find as many were still custom made. Divine stood tall as an eccentric man, friendly but something behind those eyes were hollow. Not in a living corpse sort of way, but one who had seen many corpses, slightly deranged. Nonetheless, polite and friendly, Divine shook the senators hand and tipped his hat to the senator's wife. They exchanged pleasantries as they let Divine into the parlor of their mansion. The trio sat down, Divine in a regal seat and the married couple on their leather sofa. He started to explain the idea behind Arcadia’s Movement and the process of how he picks the finest ones to perform in front of large audiences.</p><p>“.. which means before I can take in your daughter. I have to be able to see what her gift is. I’ve had too many potentials give me something extraordinary and then not be able to build on it, or it was staged the entire time and I had no further use for them.”</p><p>Divine had leaned forwards a bit with a serious expression to emphasize his point. Before the senator could start, his wife chimes in “ Well, my sweetheart Aki, is very.. emotionally attuned. So much that it’s affected our lives and it’s only a matter of time before she’s sent to Satellite if she can’t get her gift under control.”</p><p>The senator had nodded in agreement with his wife, before piping up “ Dear, why don’t you get Aki to come meet Mr.Divine?  She’s probably in her garden again.” His wife excuses herself with a cheery look and leaves through the kitchen out of the parlor. As the senator turned back to Divine, his mood had shifted from cheery to stoic to clasp his hands in hesitation.</p><p>He looks away before making eye contact with Divine.</p><p>“Are you sure you can fix her? That she can come back to us one day?”</p><p>Divine reached out to put a hand on the senators knee with a smirk on his face “Senator, she will be in good hands. I treat all of my staff and performers with most utmost respect. If your daughter truly has the power you claim she has, she certainly will be a rising star in my act and she will be able to control her powers in no time at all.”</p><p>Senator Hideo felt a rush of relief over his body that his precious little girl would be safe and respected. That she wouldn’t be around a bunch of ragtag hoodlums all day trying to do whatever low dirty tricks that they normally do to the innocent.</p><p>“How much is the fee?.. I can pay upfront.” Starting  to pull out a couple of bills. “Typically I charge a baseline of $6, and then adjust from their depending on the potential of my client.”</p><p>Divine’s attention turned away from the senator to the click of the front door as the senator's wife and Aki came in through the door. Aki had a few twigs in her hair and some dirt on her face since she tried to climb the fence from her garden. “Mr.Divine, I apologize for Aki’s appearance. She tried, uh- having an adventure in her garden and attempted to pick a couple of fruits from the fence.”</p><p>The senator's wife gave an unconvincing smile, she was never a very good liar when it came to covering for Aki most days. Aki gave a glare as Divine gave a smile. There was something about him that gave her bad feeling. There was something ominous behind that pleasant charm. She couldn’t exactly put her finger on it. She just knew that he was not to be trusted. Spotting the money in her father's hand, she knew that she couldn’t do anything. They didn’t want her anymore, and that was the proof of it. She felt warm tears roll down her eyes that cleaned away the dirt marks on her cheeks as she didn’t want to leave the only family that she knew and had. Divine had gotten up to introduce himself as she was wiping away her tears. “Miss izayoi, my name is Divine. I’m with Arcadia’s movement, we bring together people like you who have unexplainable powers but don’t know a thing about them.”</p><p>He then gave her a friendly smile and held her hands for comfort as he could tell that she was scared. Most clients around her age were skittish and easily frightened, but since children had no power to speak up he didn’t have to worry about rejecting a client because the child didn’t want to go. The decision was on the parents and the parents alone, but gave the false pretense that children had a choice to go with him.</p><p>“I know you’re scared. I know it because I’ve seen it before, but you don’t have to worry about a thing. You see Miss izayoi, I’m just like you. I have similar powers to you, so I can teach you how to control your powers. So you can reunite with your parents and not have to worry about the future.”</p><p>Aki still wasn’t convinced, as she was blocking out most of what Divine was saying. Divine had taken out a pack of cards. He set the cards on the floor and gestured to Aki to sit down with him. “ Before I leave with you I want to test your abilities. If you fail, you will stay here with your parents and live out your life as if we had never met. Okay?” Aki slowly nodded agreeing to terms that she could understand.</p><p>“I want you to set your hand on the ground, with your palm facing towards the ground next to the cards.”</p><p>Hesitating, Divine has a smile to encourage Aki until she slowly puts her hand on the ground.</p><p>“Now I want you to close your eyes. And channel all of your emotions through your body, imagine it running off of yourself like water. Let it flow out of you and let it manifest in the world."  Aki closes her eyes while listening to Divine. She didn’t want to look to see what was happening, if there was something happening. She didn’t want to leave the only place she knew. Divine paid attention to the cards and they slowly started to rise off the ground. They floated high into the air and danced around the room like snowflakes on a soft winter’s day. He could tell that something wasn't right. Divine looked at Aki before he spoke,</p><p>“You’re hesitating.”</p><p>Aki froze with shock as she quickly crack opened her eyes as the cards came back down like rain. Her pulse sped up sliding on ice, <em>H</em><em>ow ..? How did he..?</em></p><p> Divine looked her straight in the eyes.</p><p>“You’re hesitating Aki. You have more power than what you’re letting on.” Divine started collecting his cards that were on the floor. As she stayed there frozen on the ground in disbelief. Aki’s parents were in awe of the exchange they had been there to witness, before scouting to help Divine with the cards. Defeaning silence brought tension that could be cut with a butcher's knife and leave leftovers in the icebox for later.</p><p>“Well, Mr and Mrs Izayoi, I will have to add on for my fee. But we will discuss the contract, arrangements, etcetera.” Aki was silent, she felt like she had failed. She didn’t want to leave. This was her home, she was rooted here and she can’t leave now! Aki felt more sets of tears streaming down her face. Setsuko walked over and hugged her daughter, attempting to comfort her only daughter, as it wasn’t easy on herself either.</p><p>“Oh honey.. we’re not sending you away forever.. Only long enough to have your powers under control. Now let’s get your things together.”</p><p>She then gently nudged her daughter to go up to her room as both Mr Izayoi and Divine day at the table to discuss the agreement. “Now mr izayoi, let’s get down to business.” Divine then set out a couple of sheets of paper filled to the brim of legal lines, “I have no doubt in my mind that you know how to leave legal contracts but I will explain the overall agreement if you wish." Mr. izayoi nodded and picked up his reading glasses and started to read. Picking up on the social cue, he started to explain the movement, terms, uniform payment, where Arcadia’s Movement resides in the city and other legal necessities.</p><p>“ I should mention mr izayoi your contact with your daughter will be limited to letters since Arcadia’s Movement will travel a lot. But you may send one to the main headquarters if you wish as she will eventually receive these letters, but she may not have the time to reply to them. I run a strict and intensive program afterall.” Mr izayoi gave a grunt of acknowledgement as he’s still taking in the fact he’s giving his daughter away to a stranger. One paragraph did catch his eye in the contract “Mr. Divine.. What do you mean here in paragraph 14 section B) where you keep the client for more than the extended period contracted?” Divine gave a smile and straightened his posture, “You see, when I’ve trained others who have this gift not everyone progresses at the same speed I want them to, some I’ve needed to keep for several years past their contract because I felt that they weren’t to the experience level that they needed to be at.”</p><p>The senator bit his lip, he was worried about his only daughter. Divine interjected into his thoughts</p><p>“With how Aki is at her baseline power I’m certain that she’ll progress quickly or better yet be released early from her time commitment.” That’s all the senator needed to hear. Time stretched out between the two as the senator was guiding the ink from the well onto the paper. Divine knew that he had it in the bag. Aki izayoi was now under his care.</p><p>“Now about that fee..”</p><p>Upstairs Aki didn’t have the heart to pack her things. She couldn’t get herself to move her clothes into her suitcase. Sitting on her bed, Her mother was the one packing her clothes in her trunk for her. Aki was gripping her teddy bear that her father had won at a city fair years ago letting the bear collect her falling tears. It is an item very near and dear to her. She wanted to take it but didn't want to lose it to the new surroundings she’d be in. Her mother gave a sympathetic smile to comfort her daughter</p><p>“Honey don’t worry.. we’ll write to you every chance we can get! That way you won’t be alone as we’ll always be with you.” She gave her daughter a hug and a kiss on the forehead. “I will make sure that your room will be the same as you left it, so when you come back you’ll have a sense of familiarity.” Aki slowly nodded without saying a word. “I want you to know that we will always love you. No matter what.” She gave her daughter a hug again. “Now let’s get you cleaned up and a fresh change of clothing hmm?” Aki gave a weak smile as she got up to take a dress out of her closet.</p><p>Divine was waiting downstairs with another overcoat in hand for Aki so her clothes wouldn’t get dirty. He was freshly paid and was ready to teach Aki what he knows. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy on her so he’d figured he let her get adjusted to the change for the first few days. He knew she was special and had already called back to main headquarters to give Aki a separate room isolated from everyone else in the building. If she was going to be powerful it was going to be on her negative emotions. He did give her parents the P.O. box for Aki, although that was somewhat useless as she would be on towards the outskirts of town or in a different town completely half the time.</p><p>After all they knew what they signed up for.</p><p>Aki all cleaned up had taken her trunk downstairs. She was still visibly upset but she was emotional. Divine helped put her overcoat on and allowed her to give a final goodbye to her parents before leaving her house for what would be for quite some time. She had gotten in on the passenger side and Divine started the crank on the car before climbing in to then drive away from the izayoi residents. She desperately did not want to leave with this strange man, but it wasn’t up to her to decide. Divine knew he had gotten a steal to train Aki and he was intending on keeping her for quite some time with a fresh batch of excuses ready to go. Aki had to leave her sanctuary of innocence for the unknown she was entering into..</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Of seals and frills</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Aki is just starting to settle into her new life in Arcadia's Movement. Divine has plans to help Aki with her powers and to create a performer out of her, at a cost.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I do not own or am associated with the Yu-gi-oh franchise in any way. </p><p>please read and review!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The drive was pretty silent but Divine did what he could to make the ride more comfortable for him by talking. He would crack jokes about the traffic in Neo domino and had promised Aki some new outfits from the latest tailors within Arcadia’s costuming department. After all she was now part of a freak show to be put on display for all of the world to see. She didn’t want to have anything to do with it, but she didn’t have a choice, so she kept quiet.</p><p>It wasn’t before long that they had arrived at the main headquarters of Arcadia’s movement. It was the latest in high rise skyscrapers as they started to become more common in Neo domino.  The lobby adorned with chandeliers and golden adornements of the latest in interior design, with a few of the upper floors attaining colored stained glass windows.  Aki admired the glitz of the main floor,  taking everything in, but it still didn’t feel like home. It felt like a hotel she was checking in to but couldn’t check out of. Divine offered to carry her trunk and had taken her into the elevator as her room was on the 14th floor. Closer to divine and the elite of Arcadia’s movement.</p><p>  “You see Aki, I sense a great power in you so I have great expectations that you will do well while you’re with me.”  Aki gave a nod. “I can tell that you’re nervous. I’m not gonna start training you today. That way you’ll be adjusted and training will be easier with a clear mind.” <em>Ding!</em> A significant definer of reaching the correct floor. There were two guards standing outside a door down the hall. Divine had talked to the two guards and both moved aside for the two of them. He opened the door and led Aki inside. Aki took in the site of the bedroom that was basically a giant hotel suite room, with high hanging crystal chandeliers while Divine had set her trunk down.  </p><p>"This is where you’ll be staying Aki. You have plenty of books at your disposal.You’ll never be bored in your off time and you’ll always have a way to enrich yourself.”  Aki spun around the room before taking notice of a doll and a small “welcome!” Note on the bed. She smiled and some of her hesitation had faded. That maybe, just maybe she had misjudged Divine and that he was actually a good person inside! She started to look at the books on the shelf and there was one she couldn’t reach. She closed her eyes, and used her strength of desire to reach the book. A fog of purple emanated from her hand to reach the book. It wasn’t long before she felt starting to float as well. She grabbed her book but panicked a little as she was gripping onto one of the higher shelves.</p><p>Divine wasn’t paying attention to any of this as he was lost in his own thoughts before Aki interrupted him, ”um.. mr.Divine? Could.. could you help me get down?”  She was balancing herself on two of the higher shelves and Divine laughed a little “Of course!” he ran over and stood behind her with his arms out, ready to catch her</p><p>“I got you, I just need you to trust me, sweetheart.” So she took a breath, let go of the bookshelf and fell backwards right into Divines hands. It was clear that she had work to do.  “You don’t have to call me ‘Mr.Divine’, Aki.” He let Aki hop down from his grasp. Aki was processing this as she didn’t know what else to call him. “You can call me ‘Divine’ instead, after all I am on a first name basis with you. It would only be fair if it was the same with you!” Aki smiled a little and acknowledged it. </p><p>While with Arcadia’s Movement days turned into weeks. Everyday she would wait for a letter from her parents. Just one! Divine handled the distribution of mail for the higher ranking members of Arcadia’s movement. With the amount of Aki’s raw power she was considered one despite her being a newbie. This did cause many fights between her and other members but she usually came out on top in physical fights that others picked. Being isolated from everyone else, she didn't have many other to talk too in the movement. That was okay with her, </p><p>The letters she was waiting for from her parents were a key to the desperate connection that she needed. Months had started to pass into years as the realization hit her that she wasn’t going to get a letter from her parents whatsoever. This led a burning rage in Aki, as she felt that she was sold for money and was no longer ‘useful’ to her parents. In her practice sessions the amount of raw energy was showing and caused several power surges and outages within the building. But many researchers had a kerosene lamps ready to go on events like these, even before Aki's arrival. Divine took notice and he liked what he was seeing. He could see a strength that he didn’t see in her before, and all it took was hiding measly letters! She clearly had a weakness and if he was able to exploit it he could get her to do anything.. He's going to have to do something about channeling her fits of rage, hypnosis will be the first likely way to try to channel it. That way he wouldn’t have to be constantly fixing lights and said light bulbs while cursing about the lack of availability in technology. </p><p>Aki felt everything starting to go black as she wavered a bit. Even though she wasn't as young she would use quite a bit of energy in her fits of rage. She was gaining more stamina, andgeneral practice sessions  helping with that but it wasn’t nearly enough. Divine ran over to her to help her up.</p><p>“Aki you’ve been working hard.. so why don’t you rest for a while before starting back up with training? Hm?” Aki slowly nodded as she was stumbling into the dark before losing consciousness. Divine had taken the unconscious Aki, into a vacant room, previously inhabited by one of the previous performers before they had ‘disappeared’.. When she had woken up, it was into the evening and Divine had been by her side. When she started to speak he shushed her,” I want you to rest Aki. You have quite the raw power, enough to do some damage. It’s quite amazing the power that you have, but we have to find a way to inhibit it. So then you don’t cause any harm to yourself.” He then took out a long rectangular box and took the lid off. What was inside looked like a giant curler with one giant spike on both ends, encrusted with jewels and gems.</p><p>“My team and I have been developing on this since the first day you’ve been with us Aki. It will help you channel your powers so you don’t obliterate yourself into exhaustion. It should be able to be enough to hold your power but I’m not entirely certain." he gave her the curler in it's box as she inspected it, while she was rolling it into her long bangs, he took out a silver watch on its matching chain. It had an engraving of AM diagonally stacked, clearly a nod to Arcadia’s Movement. </p><p>“Now Aki I want you to relax. Let your eyes focus on this and listen to my voice.”  He then started to slowly swing the watch from side to side until he could see that Aki was watching his silver watch. He honestly wasn’t sure if this would actually work. He lowered his voice half an octave. He could see that Aki was falling into a trance as her eyes were following the watch. </p><p>“The wings of glory that allow you to fly, </p><p>The heavens will want you to testify, </p><p>Your crimes will cause your downfall, </p><p>Down, down, down to the land where you will sprawl, </p><p>All from the Cloudy heavens of the highlands.</p><p>Your power will unseal as to this phrase spoken:  The entrance to the Underworld is on the Witch’s island.” </p><p>Aki was fully in a trance and muttered along with Divine of the final line in the poem. The words that sealed her powers. Divine was pretty pleased with himself as he actually got that to work. He snapped his fingers and Aki was brought back to reality and looked around a bit all confused. </p><p>“Wha-“ </p><p>“Don’t worry Aki, you were tired from today’s training session!”</p><p>“But it felt like my spirit was coming out of m-“</p><p>Divine gave a genuine smile before patting her shoulder,  “It’s all in your head, you better get some rest Aki. We’ve got more training to do in the morning. I’ll let you rest.”</p><p>Aki was left confused as she knew that she was watching the pendulum motion of the watch Divine had in his hand. She wanted to ask Divine a question but she heard the gentle click from the door shutting completely. Aki gave a sigh and looked out the window.  She wasn’t sure what day she joined the movement but it had certainly been a year at the very least. She wasn’t allowed to go outside without a chaperone and she was only allowed to go outside for under an hour unless training was specifically outside. But that was very rare, even for Aki. So she ended up reading books that were in her massive library that was now her own personal prison. This is where the skeletons of secrets began to  stack up like rotting corpses.</p><p>There would be times that she would hear screaming late at night. Not ones of passion, but ones of pain. Shouts of pain and maniacal laughter wuth some other sounds that were clearly mechanical. She tried to follow the sound.. only to find that her door was locked, she poked her eye through the keyhole and underneath the dim kerosene lamps in the hall were two guards outside her door. She couldn’t follow it even if she wanted to. She wanted to help the poor souls being tortured but she didn’t know how. She didn’t have the tools to help those in need. Sometimes the screams she could make out all varied in pitch; It seemed to be a different person every time. She just prayed that she wasn’t next. Most of her training with Divine had been pretty timid and very basic. Skills that she needed to learn but isn't close to mastering.</p><p>As the evening sun swapped its place with the moon, she realized she was back at home again. Not her own home, but the isolation.  To at least read a letter from her parents to reassure that they didn’t forget about her. That they truly didn’t want to pay to get rid of her.  Her parents did write frequently. They wrote to her every chance they got. They would wait every day for a response from their daughter.. only to get an update from Divine. Divine was usually the one responding to the letters. He would sometimes ask Aki  how she felt or what she misses, to give a realistic answer that Aki would give. He kept a few copies of Aki’s full signature on file to make sure that he was getting her signature correct. As Divine was writing another letter to the Izayoi's posing as Aki. He had debated on sending the couple two ‘tickets' , as Aki hadn’t been trained to do any stunts yet. For newbies it can be difficult to master but decided against it until the next main season would start in the summer. He needed her trust to do these stunts. If he didn’t have one he didn’t have them all. After all, contract renewals were coming up very soon in December. It was typically a very easy season as he was primarily the main employer for this city. Heartland was several kilometers north from Neo domino and rarely hired new talent. Show business is a tough business after all.  Aki had started basic flips, trust falls and other simple stunts. Nothing worthy to be a headlining. </p><p>Then it occurred to him.</p><p>A plant based act for Aki. </p><p>He could see the money roll on in! It was going to be a paradise for him. But it was a different type of act, he could later on have her use her powers to incorporate other stunts into her routine to make it more exciting. It would be a unique act that would force competition to his shows. But it would be a discussion in the morning with the other elite members. After all he had to wait to get the results from the one child who supposedly has psychic powers that they picked up off the street, if  the child survived.  </p><p>He needed his rest, after all, he wanted to make sure that Aki’s training would go splendidly as he wanted as much time with her as possible. Although he didn’t need to worry about that because of the loophole in the contract the Senator clearly didn’t care about. He practically owned Aki as long as he felt that she wasn’t “suitable enough” to return to a normal setting. And that could be for several years, or until he didn’t need her anymore.  He started to pick out several different plants from catalogues and from what he avalible in order to start training early in the morning. He was going to make her a star in his act by next season. The next morning Aki was given practice wear of what she would likely be wearing for her first show. Of course it wasn’t her official performance wear for the season, but it would help her gain a sense of confidence in her performance if she knew what she would be wearing.. And if she had difficulties in said costume she had enough time to find work arounds. </p><p>...</p><p>She felt ridiculous. </p><p>Regular dresses were one thing, but a hoop skirt? It must be a mix up.</p><p>It had to be a mix up.</p><p>There was no way she could wear that for a show! What was Divine thinking of dressing the women up this way?? </p><p><em> It’s a pretty dress, but this is no where near practical for what my act requires</em>!</p><p>Aki’s dress was a bright pastel blue base with puffed sleeves, that was laced with white frills. The neck piece covered the top part of her chest. She also had stockings with bloomers that ended just above the knee both topped with bows on above those frills. Her boots were shiny new button hook boots that reached to her calf. </p><p>She hoped that this was a mix up.  She bit her lip and fluffed the dress over the modified hoop skirt she was wearing before strutting out of the changing room with confidence to face Divine. There was no way in hell that she was wearing this for a practice session. She walked out to the entrance of the practice room on the 3rd floor of the Arcadia Movement building. The practice room was quite massive, which explained why there were less visible doors on the 3rd and 4th floors.  The life in the room with Trapeze artists swapping places midair, a girl in the corner breathing fire, two men manipulating water being dumped from a bucket, and one girl next to her taking out a deck of strange cards.  She took in the sights before she spotted Divine directing  two men setting up some potted plants towards the windows.  She walked over to him and tapped him on the arm, Divine turned around and gave a smile  “Aki! You look so beautiful! I hope you didn’t have any issues getting ready.”</p><p>“About the dress Divine.. It’s beautiful but I can’t perform in this, is there something more flexible-” </p><p>“Don’t be ridiculous! If you can control your powers you can handle doing a performance act in a dress”</p><p>“But-”</p><p>“Now I’m going to introduce you to the act you are going to perform for next season.” Divine gestured to the plants. Aki sighed seeing that she wasn’t going to win this fight and walked over to the plants. Upon inspecting them, they were primarily Ivy and Wisteria plants.  </p><p>“I know how much you love plants, so I figured a performance around plants would work to our advantage. I’m going to train you on how to manipulate plants. Shrink, enlarge, dehydrate, everything! And you are going to perform next summer!” Aki blinked as knew she would enjoy this, she concentrated all of her energy in a pulling motion only to not get anywhere. Divine laughed, “Don’t worry you’ll get the hang of it!”</p><p>After a long day of nothing but training she felt that she didn’t get anywhere.</p><p>In the evening she decided to return to her assigned room and get ready for bed. After she had a new change of clothes she was in the mood to read. With a vast selection to choose from she always had an issue of which book to read. As she was looking for a fantasy book to read, she came across one book in her library; although it looked more like a journal than a fantasy book.</p><p>Her curious eyes got the better of her and opened the book, with the first page titled <em>Neo domino Vampires?</em> She couldn’t see who the author was as there was some water damage to the first few pages as it warped the ink too much on the first page.  She turned the page to find a bunch of discombobulated notes about physical features of vampires. Things like <em>f</em><em>angs like canines</em> and <em>extremely pale</em> were quite easy to read, but ones like <em>silver knife?</em> <em>Non normal bullets</em> ? Were too difficult to read without much context. But she felt it contained some vital information about vampires. She kept reading on, she felt that she was absorbing forbidden knowledge. In recent years there were talks about vampire sightings on the outskirts of Neo Domino, but there was never anything that was proven as it was staged or the evidence was too far fetched.  Self proclaimed ‘professionals’ were frauds or would go missing after a few days never to return. In the outskirts, more specifically in the woods you do not want to be alone in. She debated on asking Divine about the vampire sightings but decided against it as she knew that he would laugh about it.</p><p>Regardless she needed to get some sleep, she had more training early in the morning.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yes I did use the line Divine uses from the anime to unseal her powers. In the anime it was never overtly explained how Aki's powers were sealed in the first place besides from having a trigger word to unseal it. So I created a circumstance that would explain why her full powers would need to be sealed in the first place. After this chapter there will be some long awaited faithshipping!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The meeting that wasn't meant to be... yet</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>In the alleys, Yusei and Crow flee Satellite district to Neo Domino as a second stop. But how much do they get distracted ?</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Satellite and Neo Domino are still connected but it's separated by a distinct border, once you go in it's hard to get out of Satellite sort of thing. After this chapter content is going to become more graphic in violence and in psychological &amp; physical abuse. </p><p>Please read and review!<br/>Edit 9-25-2020: Added a few sentences to help connect ideas and flow.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In the streets of the Satellite Work district, late at night was all a ruckus. Screaming and shouting came from the back alleys of the residential district. But one thing for certain was that he had to get out of there. Running around a corner and ducking into a rat infested alley way was just another Thursday for Yusei Fudo. Despite his classy cloak, with frilled blouse and pants straight from the 1800s he didn’t exactly like being regal. Something in him constantly compelled him to dress nicer, desire some of the fancier things in life. He wasn’t a huge religious person but something about Christian crosses really bothered him and he <em>did </em> have a reaction to silver. It may have been the way he dressed.</p><p>His skin was quite sun kissed and he had some fancier jewelry nothing too out of–oh.</p><p>Then it hit him.</p><p>His teeth, a few were explicitly sharper than other but that didn’t automatically make him a vampire.. did it?</p><p>He couldn’t think about that now. He had to focus on getting away from the crowd that was going to tear him limb from limb. So he did what he did best, finding an escape route. Throwing up the hood of his cloak he crept back through the maze of alleyways trying to find an entrance to the sewer system. Or at least a grate he could crawl through. It didn’t take long until he felt a gun on his back. He didn’t have to turn around to know that it was one person that he knew.</p><p>“Put your hands up. I found you.. you bastard.” Yusei had a smirk on his face and put his gloved hands up. Just by the voice he knew who it was,</p><p>“Oh.. do tell me, what’s my crime this week? Existing?” He felt the gun press harder into his back.</p><p>“You’re not in the position to give me sass.” The man spoke with a sense of anger and grit in his voice.</p><p>“Oh and you are? Esteemed hunter?.. or should I say master thief.. Crow?” He then felt the pressure from the  gun be removed from his back as Crow reholstered it.</p><p>“Damnit Yusei, I could’ve seriously maimed or killed you! Don’t do that!”</p><p>Yusei turned around gave gave a charming smile</p><p>“oh do what?~”</p><p>Crow chuckled and punched Yusei’s arm. Yusei reacted with a somewhat pained reaction. Crow had on a dress shirt with ‘Y’ suspenders to hold up his pants. His shoes were worn and beaten up like his pocket vest. With untamed red hair and a few scars gracing his face, each one with a unique story. He always carries with him his holstered gun and a case. It contained essentials for hunting vampires as he had silver bullets as ammo for his revolver when the time came. He grew up with Yusei so he would always let him “get away”, he couldn’t bear to shoot his practically adopted brother! He didn’t and wouldn’t have the guts to do it.</p><p>Instead he made a pact with Yusei. If Yusei were to lose his grip from reality due to his brain wanting blood to ravish in, for that reason and that reason alone he would kill Yusei on the spot to prevent anyone else from getting hurt, but only as a last resort. But in the meantime Crow was going to hunt down other malicious vampires and other supernatural creatures around Neo Domino.</p><p>“C’mon Yusei we need to get out of here before the mob finds us lovebirds out here”</p><p>Crow continued to walk in front of Yusei avoiding all of the broken glass that seemed to be booze bottles and garbage being thrown into the narrow alleys. It wasn't before long that they found the nearest sewer cover in the street curb of the trashed street. They both made a dash for it, before attempting to lift the copper grate. The both of them jumped on in and use the rusted out ladder to make their way down into the labyrinth of pipes. As they both reached the bottom Crow lit his kerosene lamps so they could see in the darkness ahead, but in the meantime they could use the system to jump into Neo domino before heading into the outskirts of town. Both of them were silent before Yusei spoke.</p><p>“So crow.. any luck on finding the missing children or your journal?” Crow shook his head in defeat.</p><p>“No and no unfortunately.. the only lead that I had is-” the both came to a crossroads in the pipe system and crow had pointed to the left one “I think we need to go this way. I don’t have my compass on me-”</p><p>“Did you bring your map?” Crow hesitated, as he wasn’t 100% certain.</p><p>“Uhh-”</p><p>Yusei gave out a deep breath, moreso from Crow's lack of competence.</p><p>“Nevermind. I’m sure there’ll be an indicator. The residential district is close if not practically connected to Neo domino so I’m sure the system will look much nicer than satellites. We need to keep moving forward.”</p><p>Crow nodded before starting on his original thought</p><p>“Anyways, the only lead I have on the children is a guy in a cloak that comes around late at night to take children. Most say he wears a cloak that’s a dark color some say that he has a distorted face, but I’m pretty sure it’s a mask.”</p><p>Yusei couldn’t give much of a positive reaction, but he knew crow wouldn’t give up on the children in the poor district of satellite. He loved them with his heart and they loved him back. </p><p>"Well.. what about your journal?”</p><p>Crow released a heavy sigh.“Nope. I swear it was in my bag but I was observing on the outskirts but it’s not there. I’ll have to check to make sure that it’s not in the secret place I left it. That is practically my life’s work and if it’s destroyed I’m-”</p><p>Yusei put his hand on Crow’s shoulder to reassure him. “We’ll get your journal back Crow. You focus on finding those missing kids. For now let’s find our way outta here.”</p><p>Soon enough there was a distinct jump in funding when it came to Neo Domino’s sewer system. All it was missing was a “Welcome to Neo domino city you’re leaving satellite” sign. The city could probably put a sign there if they wanted too either way. Yusei climbed up to go through the city’s lines. Unfortunately he has to find an alley somewhere or wait until next nightfall to escape out of the system. He was going to need to wash his clothes and a shower. As soon as possible preferably there was only so much he could do to clear out the stench.</p><p>But that didn’t matter now, he had to focus on getting out of the city before sunrise. He’d be an eyesore if he were to be caught in the middle of an upper class society. That journal was first priority over anything else. It had vital information for Yusei, so he could learn about himself more and if there were any others like him in the area. The both of them had wandered through the maze of the sewage system that was Neo Domino until they had come across beams of moonlight. It was a manhole cover in the middle of the street. This was Yusei’s escape, the other grates were fine but sometimes he had difficulty getting the grate to unlock and it seemed weird for a person to come out of the sidewalk grates in the middle of the night. The street grates were less difficult to deal with and were easier to unlock in his opinion. In addition it was also less suspicious than a sidewalk grate. As he started ascending the ladder he called out to Crow,</p><p>“Oi you comin?”</p><p>Crow hesitated, “ I need to. Only I know where my secret stash of journals are and I need to make sure that it’s there.”</p><p>Crow then started to ascend the ladder behind Yusei.</p><p>....</p><p>During the course of time that she was staying at Arcadia’s Movement she was improving immensely. She could manipulate plants to the sizes she needed to and return them to normal size. In the beginning there were a couple of notable mishaps, such as she couldn’t get the plants to resize back to normal then being stuck up in the air for a bit or when she commanded the vines to catch her, they did but it was the wrong set of vines she commanded and she ended up having thorns stuck in her ankle for a few hours. Although she would talk to plants, as if they were her friends; Some of the performers thought it was weird, but Aki saw it as her way of thanking and returning the favor to the plants. They’re not exactly sentient beings, but they are living creatures.</p><p>She was enjoying training, she found herself trusting Divine.</p><p>Maybe more than what she should be.</p><p>She only looked up to him because he treated her nicely and always took her side. He would take her out in the countryside to do some special lessons, actually seemed to be quite focused on her potential. More focused on manipulating trees and shrubbery rather than just the flowers for the show. Clearly being favored by Divine and he made no discreteness of it whatsoever. Sometimes he’d get.. a little too close for her comfort, but it was few and far moments in between since she was still under 16 at the time. He wasn’t beating her up or smacking her upside the head or anything.</p><p>She wasn’t a part of a nightmare, she just overreacted!</p><p>In some ways she didn’t mind as she was getting the attention she felt she deserved. Her father was usually away on business trips for months at a time; her mother didn’t exactly know how to interact with her own daughter most of the time due to her powers. It was with gardening that they bonded through and seemed the only way she could communicate with her daughter. It occurred to her how much time had passed since she had first joined Arcadia’s Movement and her first performance with the group. She had turned 17 a few days ago as she was almost ready for her first performance in the summer season.</p><p>She was excited but she was nervous about each season. Her memory was starting to become spotty, but didn’t think anything of it and brushed off due to nervousness or hysteria. Maybe it was because she was thinking about her parents again? She hadn’t heard a word from her parents even though she turned 17, not even a phone call. She had given letters so Divine could send them out, she had her doubts about Divine mailing them out properly every time she wrote one. But even when she had spied on Divine she always witnessed her letters being delivered into the public mailbox just outside of the building. It had been a few years since she had joined Divine’s group.</p><p>
  <em>Divine, messing with my mail? No way, it just had to be lost or..</em>
</p><p>Aki shook her head, but in those creeping thoughts she started to lose her balance, before she quickly gathered herself before falling to her demise on the high wire tightrope.She took a deep breath.</p><p>
  <em>I need to finish this routine, I can’t focus on that right now.</em>
</p><p>She braced herself as she clutched onto the pole that was helping her with her balance, forcing her brain to communicate with her feet to coordinate with each other on the tense rope. She kept pushing forward until she came to the other side, or point B of her act. She knew that Divine wouldn’t lie to her, after all he would answer any questions she had about his experiences as a “psychic performer” as he called it. Many other performers couldn’t get an answer about Divine’s past or how he discovered his powers. But he opened up to her, her of all people. Practices became longer into the night due to the new season coming up. Aki enjoyed performing into the warm nights, it felt like she was back in her garden, back in her little sanctuary of memories with the stars looking over her.</p><p>Sometimes she didn’t practice with shoes on, as she felt like one with the Earth beneath her feet. She preferred the ground acts over the high wire ones for this reason. But with potted plants below she could easily manipulate the plants and turn it into an improvised act, which could capture the crowd's attention on a given night.</p><p>She wanted to spend the night outside of Arcadia’s main building tonight, sometimes Divine would allow “tent nights” in the spring and summer seasons so the performers had a way to channel out their restlessness from being kept up during winter renewal and training. She walked back across the lot to her tent makeshift changing room. Her tent on the larger side but due to spacing issues her area was closer to the asphalt than she would’ve liked. She had used crates with weights on the top to make the cover, and her cot was on the soft grass. She started humming to herself and changed out of her circus wear from the day's practice. She changed into a white square cut cotton nightgown. She had a full length mirror in her tent as she wanted to practice her new set up for the upcoming season. She looked in the mirror and started to continue her thoughts from earlier.</p><p><em>I’m already 17.. I can’t believe that I already turned 17. Other girls my age are already getting married within the Movement and I still haven’t been kissed yet.. Besides from my own parents.. But they don’t matter anymore! They couldn’t bother to come to write, call or even come to a performance.. Are they that ashamed of me?</em> Aki bit her lip and tried to put on her nightcap but it was difficult considering the stabilizing curler in her hair. She was focused in her thoughts that she blocked out the surroundings in her mind.</p><p>....</p><p><em>..Boxes, patched striped material,</em> his wandering eyes caught a kerosene lamp on the asphalt, <em>..A kerosene lamp? Hold up.. Why the hell are there so many tents-</em> his furrowed brows where interrupted as he heard the sounds of footsteps coming.</p><p>
  <em>Click-tap,click-tap,click-tap </em>
</p><p>Yusei jerked the grate back into place but lost his balance in the process nearly knocking back into crow, yelling,“WHAT THE HELL-”</p><p>Yusei immediately shushed him and made a gesture that there was someone walking above. “<em>Don’t blow my fucking cover-</em>”</p><p>Yusei then gently lifted the grate just enough to see a tall man in a three piece suit with reddish brown hair walkover into the closest tent. Luckily, this place not only had a fence he could scale, but plenty of trees and shrubbery to hide in.</p><p>He then whispered to Crow in an authoritative manner, “Okay. Crow, I see a lot of shrubbery and trees we can scale to get the hell out of here. I’m not sure where we’re at exactly, but it’s definitely Neo Domino City. It smells too classy and rich here, there's a dratted fence we can climb over.”</p><p>Crow smacked Yusei’s leg, “Alright big guy let’s go.”</p><p>“At least buy me dinner first.”</p><p>Yusei retorted sarcastically as Crow quietly mocked him.</p><p>Both of them quickly climbed up and out of the sewers and re-shifted the grate into place. As they both ran past one of the tents, something caught Yusei’s eye as he ran past the open clothed tent. It was that same man he saw just a few minutes ago, hugging a woman who still had a baby face and couldn’t be older than 16, though he was purely guessing. What made him do a double take was <em>how</em> he was holding her. In the reflection of the large mirror, She was clearly <em>not</em> comfortable with the way his arms wrapped around her. Yusei felt his blood boil and his teeth clench tightly to each other. He was ready to go sock that man but Crow had to pull him down into the shrubbery with him. Crow practically almost growled to Yusei,</p><p>“We can check on her later. We are clearly not meant to be in this territory. This place is Arcadia’s Movement. The-”</p><p>“The freakshow. Maybe she might have a lead about-”</p><p>“My journal Yusei?” Crow gave him a look. A look that spelled <em>that bullshit won’t fly with me.</em> Yusei realized what he had said, was turning red like a tomato and started to correct himself</p><p>“ Well I-”</p><p>Crow gave a sigh, “ You truly are a selfless idiot.” Crow pointed up to one of the tall trees.</p><p>“We can wait there, but I don’t think we can afford to lose anymore time.” Yusei gave a sigh. Crow was right, but he wanted to make sure that woman was safe.</p><p>Aki felt Divine breathing down her neck. He wasn’t doing anything bad, he was just hugging her. It was definitely weird as he looked like he was her boss or a mentor in a way and she really didn’t know how old he actually was, his age kept changing every time she asked. She sometimes felt that she was losing her mind with him. But she couldn’t break her contract just yet, she still wasn’t considered an adult so all she could do was put up with Divine’s antics. No matter how uncomfortable it made her, even though it wasn’t very often. But usually she could put up an excuse such as not feeling well or being too tired to get him to go away. She usually exaggerated her movements to break away from her grasp. This time she could use her makeup as an excuse for him to get off of her. And which she did, as she started to pour some water from the porcelain pitcher to wet a wash cloth the forced breakaway caused Divine to move his arms up in the air.</p><p>“Divine, I’m tired and I want to rest up so I can be ready for the afternoon sessions alright?”</p><p>Divine gave a fake smile and let his arms sink down before putting them in his pants pockets. He then turned to walk out and let his smile go into a poker face in annoyance as he wasn’t able to fully manipulate her. Trances didn’t always have the same wear off effect on Aki, sometimes she’d be one for hours after the right words were spoken and there were a few times that she had woken up in mid trance. So if he was going to do that, he was going to do that sparingly so she wouldn’t have to bring it up. He had done that a few times before, but this time wasn’t worth putting her in a trance for. So he briskly walked out of her tent and felt the anger in his feet as he went back to the side doors of the building.</p><p>Yusei knew he couldn’t reveal himself to her as he couldn’t afford to be outed. Something kept nagging at him to go check on her, to make sure she was okay. So he silently peered over to see that she was not in pain, maybe hurt emotionally but she wasn’t beaten. She was certainly a showstopper, he wanted to give her a hug to make sure that she wasn’t suffering. Crow was urging Yusei to climb the fence as he knew that their time was running short. Yusei was enamored with her but had to leave, so he blew her an invisible kiss and whispered</p><p>“We will meet again, fairly soon I will know your name.”</p><p>Yusei backed away from the tent reluctantly before scaling the tall fence surrounding the perimeter. The both of them had hopped down from the fence into the streets and had taken off in the visual concert of street lamps.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>In this chapter, there is slight Faith shipping, but more prominent moments are coming I promise! More better quality faithsipping is coming up in the next couple of chapters!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. To the Outskirts</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Yusei and Crow make their escape from Neo Domino. The senator discovers some nasty details about the contract he signed years ago..</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wanted to focus more on Yusei's and Crow's relationship this chapter! I felt that Sherry would be more of a business woman who makes money or a spinster (in edwardian terms) rather than a love interest. </p><p>I do not own or am associated with the Yugioh franchise!</p><p>Please read and review!</p><p>Edit: 10-05-2020 Fixing plot holes</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As the two of them had run down the quiet streets of Neo domino.</p><p>He couldn’t get her out of his mind.</p><p>The place she was in bothered him. The fact that some man was grabbing her like that and couldn’t pick up on basic social cues was disgusting to him. Even he knew that you don’t treat women like that! The thought just let a bad taste in his mouth. It was quickly washed away as the sound of horses softly trotted the streets. Security patrolmen. With barely any where to hide, they backtracked a little to hide in the closest rose bush.</p><p>Big mistake.</p><p>The both of them felt the pricks of pain the bush was constantly prodding at them for. Like a virus. They kept their pain at a silence until the sound faded to silence again before jumping out of the Rose bush limping before gaining speed into a sprint. Neo domino was a mess of a maze as it started to grow and change to an even bigger city. He cursed the sights of progress as it made it difficult for them to leave.</p><p>It took a few hours and some evasion to finally reach the division of forest and civilization. They both wandered into the forest and gave a breath of relief. All they had to do now was find the outskirts. From there they could find Crow's secret stash of knowledge on monsters around Neo Domino. He wasn’t able to find a publisher as many rejected it while laughing in his face or they wanted to turn it into some romance novel, especially with the vampire journal.. for some reason.</p><p>But they still marched on to the North to the Outskirts.</p><p>The Outskirts is a small unofficial town meant for refugees between Heartland and NeoDomino/Satellite. Sort of like a sanctuary for the poor. It was typically dangerous for outsiders who didn’t know the rules or polished city officials who clearly had money. Crow has been lucky enough to deal with the Outskirts enough to be on neutral terms with the woman who runs the place, Sherry LeBlanc.</p><p>Sherry is a ruthless business woman who doesn’t take shit from anyone. She stands her ground to win many deals with Heartland and Neo Domino for their shared existence. She crushes any attitudes of sexism and fear in her town. She was not going to let her town turn into Neo Domino or Heartland. Out of all the city’s the Outskirts was probably the most “progressive” town. There are only a few rules in the Outskirts: an eye for an eye, don’t mess with the women,children, weak or vulnerable; and settle your disputes together like men. An unspoken rule is to not pry with others lives unless prompted. This rule was a haven for Yusei, it didn’t stop the bizarre looks from strangers but it didn’t prompt them to ask questions either. It allowed him to focus on other tasks instead of hiding the fact that he was a vampire.</p><p>Typically it took a day on the normal roads as the town was very off the beaten path and there wasn’t a direct road that connected. But cutting through the forest shaved a good few hours off the journey on foot. An underground tunnel is in the works to make it easier to go directly into Neo Domino. But that didn’t matter now.</p><p>They had to keep moving.</p><p>...</p><p>They truly  missed their daughter.</p><p>It was nice to not have the anxiety of items crashing into the marble floors when Aki was upset from the aftermath of her powers, but that doesn’t mean that they still didn't love her. They would write to Aki to only get a generic response from Divine. There were very few times that they would get a letter from Aki over the few years she’s spent with Divine... If it actually was Aki at all. There was a suspicion that it wasn't Aki writing back to them, but nothing could really be proven. </p><p>Regret tugged at them from signing her off just at 14 years old. They’ve tried calling Divine on multiple occasions, as outsiders are strictly not allowed on the property. Without fail Divine always came up with an excuse why Aki wasn’t available to take a phone call. He was always happy to answer to save face for his organization.</p><p>Divine let the words slip out of his lips like silk, “Well dear senator, it would be such a shame if the public were to find out that the senator gave up the parental rights to their daughter who is, in nature a <em>freak</em> to society; I’m <em>quite certain</em> that will put you back into office next year!”</p><p>The senator held his breath before Divine gave a titch on the other end of the line.</p><p>Was that what he signed?</p><p>
  <em>There was no way that could be possible! It wasn’t anywhere in the contract!</em>
</p><p>He held the receiving end to his neck as he yelled for his wife to find the contract. He knew he didn’t sign his daughter off in the contract! He wouldn’t have accepted that on those terms!</p><p>“Now dear Senator, if you take a look in .. Oh I believe paragraph 14 section B of the contract, it states that I can keep my client for longer than the extended period originally assigned, and Aki hasn’t been progressing as quickly as I originally anticipated. Don’t worry Senator, she has much potential within her! I’ve been showing her some of the tips and tricks of the trade. She’s also been studying new tricks she’s teaching herself on her own to catch up to the others!” His wife brought in the contract running in across the cold floors to stumble and almost trip on her dress.</p><p>Senator Hideo was boiling with anger by being mocked from the other end of the line. He snatched the copy of the contract out of his wife’s hands and started to flip through it aggressively. Divine was smirking on the other end of the line knowing he had him cornered.</p><p>“ Senator, why else do you think that I requested a copy of all of Aki’s legal documents you had at the current moment when we had signed? I’m certain that you read paragraph 16 since you stopped at 14 section B and didn’t ask any questions.”</p><p>Mrs. Izayoi was confused as her husband was shaking in anger. How dare he try to mock a powerful figure in office! He was the one who was allowing him to stay in the city limits after all! Then it hit him. He really did sell out his little girl, his mind starts to play the flashback during the sign off.</p><p>
  <em> As Divine was walking through the contract with him for any clarifications, The senator was getting wary from reading all of the documentation, he started to check out and lose focus around paragraph 10 on page 3 in what seemed to be a massive document though it was only a couple of pages. Divine started to manipulate the interpretations of articles 14, 15 and 16. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You do realize that I will need a copy of Aki’s legal documents right?” The senator groggily looked at him confused as that was the only way he could ask a question from reading a grueling document.</em>
</p><p>
  <em> “ Well in the case that Aki is held into my custody past the agreed date, she will need her documents in case she gets married or needs proof that she belongs in Neo Domino and not.. The other district.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em>That was what the senator needed to hear, once he gave his signature with the musty ink and received his payment. He thanked him and gave one little statement </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I should add one more itsy bitsy thing, I will need all of Aki’s legal documents within the week in order to act as her guardian. You can call me or you can leave them with the front desk in the building. Just show them this-” he handed the senator it was a business card with some writing in cursive stating </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Divine’s interventional guest with plus one” the senator took it and stuffed it into his coat pocket. </em>
</p><p>When the senator had realized what he had done he turned pale in disbelief “That can’t be true!”</p><p>Divine started to inspect his nails while putting his feet on his wooden oak desk. Then spoke with a tinge of annoyance,</p><p>“Take a look at Paragraph 15 and I quote “ <em>if the client is a minor under legal age, the employer</em>- which is me- <em>can and will have equivalent and equal rights to act as the sole guardian for the client for the contract term. These rights are also extended if the client’s contract is extended at any time for any reason</em>” So dear senator, you have given me full parental rights to Aki and I will act in her best interest. You can not take any legal action against me as it’s stated in the contract.” His demeanor lightened a little bit “..Now do you have any other questions sir?”</p><p>The senator was on the verge of tears, fully realizing that he had lost his little girl.</p><p>“ ..No.. Have a good day Divine.”</p><p>He slowly hung up the phone before fully breaking down into his wife’s arms.</p><p>It was all his fault.</p><p>He was the one who sent her away.</p><p>His wife was confused, as he started to explain, she started to cry with him. They were mourning a loss for the daughter that was still alive and healthy. They were in a metaphorical corner to be able to get Aki back as their daughter.</p><p>They couldn’t visit her even for performances, all of the tickets either weren’t “accepted” even though it came straight from Divine, and it was always a “mix up” between ticket leftovers from the previous performance show date or a counterfeit. The Izayoi’s never made a scene about it in public as it would be an automatic career ender for Mr.Izayoi.</p><p>They had no choice but to let the contract work its way.</p><p>They could only hope that Aki could escape when she turns 18. Mrs.Izayoi never understood why he never called Divine earlier about it, her husband always responds that his work always got in the way to call Divine to ask. Seeing that her husband was always putting his work before his family and before his little girl, Mrs. Izayoi slapped her husband in a fury, since he didn’t call earlier and sold Aki off before she started to cry again. The both of them had emotions they needed to work out, therapy was not an option, they would be sent to a mental facility. So the mutual option was for Mrs.Izayoi to vacation to their summer home in Heartland with a couple of servants to accompany her. It was going to be rocky from here out, but Mr.Izayoi was going to do everything in his power to get Aki back.</p><p>....</p><p>Yusei was a love sick child.</p><p>He couldn’t get the image of that woman out of his head. She was stunning, like a finished polished piece of engraved silver-no, like luxury.</p><p>She was luxury, not an item, but she wasn’t cheap looking. It got to the point where Crow started teasing him about it, as it annoyed Yusei since their journey was a long one to the Outskirts. Although her face of uneasiness with that man really <em>did</em> bother him a little too much. </p><p>Sherry didn’t remotely keep track of who was coming in and out, just only who held property. There was a place out of the woods that was in dispute for land initially, but is ultimately held by the Outskirts. It was an abandoned mansion out in the middle of woods completely isolated. It needed to be razed years ago, but no one stepped near it because of supernatural instances in that area. Some claim to have seen a pair of twin children there and others have claimed to see a creature with bright fangs and glossy eyes. Neo Domino currently does not have an interest due to the speculation in that particular area and it would violate the agreement between towns. It was legally a headache and would be simpler if the Outskirts held the land for the time being. Time had certainly passed as their adrenaline was running out and the lack of sleep was kicking in. They both haven’t realized that they finally reached the tiny town that they had been searching for. Crow slid down the hill while Yusei tripped and started to roll down it. Both Yusei and Crow had felt the high of sleep deprivation kicking in and felt his eyes sag. They both needed a place to stay to rest, they usually “paid” in a form of fixing up the town or something Sherry needed. They were very well attuned in terms of  hand-eye coordination and could figure out easily how things ticked, a talent both of them had acquired growing up.</p><p>As they wandered into town, the people got out of their way to help avoid them crashing like drunk flies into others.. And sometimes buildings. One of the men helped them to Sherry’s and as a courtesy they gave him a small canteen of booze. It was one small way to help for an equal exchange. Giving a courtesy knock; opened the door, before Sherry could yell at them, they both landed on the ground and fell asleep.</p><p>Right in the middle of her doorway.</p><p>Sherry was somewhat more well dressed, but she kept it modest to give a message that she was equal to the people she watched over. A blouse with a floor length pencil skirt did the trick. She looked like a teacher with her blonde hair pulled into a bun, but she was learning more from others than a strict teacher would from her students. She could smell the stench of the sewers off the both of them as she was dragging their bodies inside. She had no choice but to strip the both of them down. She muttered and cursed as she got the wash bins ready and started laundry as it took a few hours to prepare and fully wash. She didn’t keep much of men’s clothes around but she did have two extra sets of clothing the both of them could wear. Two portable large wash bins were ready for the two of them once they had enough rest. She did feel like she was taking care of children, but the two of them never got to be children. Yusei was bitten from a young age, likely from a mishap with his father then shot dead afterwards. Other rumors speculated that the wife of Yusei's father was a vampire and Yusei was a love child between the two. If Yusei knew anything about his parents he sure was hell not going to say anything about it.</p><p>His father was around longer than his mother but his memory was a bit foggy when it came to his father dying... At least that's what she was told when she asked. She never pressed as it gave visible anguish to him.</p><p>As for Crow he was an orphan, he was picked on for making friends with animals and then talking to them. He loved birds the most as they were fascinating to him, he taught himself how to train pigeons to carry messages. Sometimes the local kids would passionately call him “the pigeon lord” due to this, out of all the bird types, he attracted crows the most. He was never sure why, but a crow is a bird so it didn’t really matter in that aspect.</p><p>Sherry hung a line outside of her home, as it doubled as the main office. She ended up dragging both of the men upstairs into the very first bedroom in the house. She was strong but she wasn’t that strong. Whenever the both of them showed up together it meant that they were drunk, in trouble, or needed a favor of some sort.</p><p>Yusei and Crow woke up disoriented as the warm sun started to set, they noticed that they were in a completely different set of clothes. They both were briefly confused before they felt the oils on their skin mix in with their stench. They looked at each other before they both bolted to the door arguing who was going to wash up first. Yusei shoved Crow out of the way to then bolt down the hallway. Sherry was in the kitchen and could hear muttered incoherent yelling about a bath she gave a heavy sigh.</p><p>
  <em>Well, the two of them are up.</em>
</p><p>Yusei ran into the bathroom first and locked the door while Crow banged on it in defeated irritation. Sherry dealt with their shenanigans as they respected her as a woman the first moment they had met. Yusei was very poised and respectful, while Crow treated her as an equal from his bargaining terf. The loud banging was giving her a headache though. She got up from the dining room table to yell up the stairs,</p><p>“If I have to hear any more loud noises I’m going to whip both of your asses into shape. <em>Got it?!</em>”</p><p>The rowdiness ceased and Crow mocked her silently from afar like a child throwing a small tantrum. Sherry’s place and few other homes as well as businesses had running water supplied from the nearby river. Sherry was in the midst of talks of a deal with Heartland and Neo Domino to use their water treatment plants until Outskirts was able to build their own as the amount of people living in the town started to grow. There was a community well that the townspeople could use and share if they needed too but Sherry knew it wasn’t going to last forever.</p><p>Once Yusei was finished cleaning himself he gracefully left the bathroom for an angry Crow to glare at him. Yusei laughed and gave a coy smile. Crow then ran into the bathroom to lock it behind him to start his bath. Yusei snuck downstairs to avoid Sherry mainly because he was in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist as he considered himself indecent. Sherry was reading a newspaper, she didn’t need to turn around to know that it wasn’t Crow’s footsteps. Yusei’s footsteps were much more agile, lighter than Crow’s.</p><p>“Yusei, your clothes are on the coffee table in my office. When you get dressed you and Crow are to wash the blankets and clothes you wore last night.” Yusei turned red and hightailed it out of the kitchen to a side room with the door slamming behind him. Sherry shook her head in annoyance, <em>they may be street smart but they are the goofiest kids I know</em>.</p><p>Once Yusei had dressed back into the clothes Sherry loaned him, he started to clean his collection of Clothes.</p><p>Finest silk and cotton of a 1868 frilled men’s blouse and trousers with a belt wrap. Sherry really needed to get him some new threads from Heartland or something to blend in, some have said that he looks like a pirate who washed up onto shore. Though they weren't exactly wrong, he really didn't match the trends of the times. </p><p>But that was an issue for another day, she needed to know why the two of them are back in this little city.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Into the Woods</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Yusei and Crow arrive at the mansion, while Aki is sorting out her stress with show business</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I do not own or am associated with Yugioh in any way.</p><p>Please read and review!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sherry sat the two boys down at her office to figure out what the hell is going on.</p><p>“So.. what you’re telling me is that Crow lost his journal?”</p><p>“Yup. The dumbass can’t find it.” Crow gave Yusei a look that can be described as he was very close to kicking Yusei’s ass.</p><p>“I probably left it around the old mansion in the middle of the woods. Or by the lake house somewhere.” </p><p>Sherry sighed, “well if there’s something I can do to help just let me know. I don’t have much.” Crow then had a sparked idea and elbowed Yusei</p><p>“Yusei we could fix up the mansion and fuck around with the locals! It’ll be livable” Yusei slapped crow’s arm.</p><p>“That place isn’t livable but it wouldn’t hurt to fix some of the rotting wood there. We could also see if the ‘twin ghosts’ actually exist and go from there.”</p><p>Yusei didn’t believe in ghosts because it didn’t seem realistic enough. This always confused crow, since Yusei was a literal supernatural embodiment but he didn’t question it, rolling his eyes. Sherry gave an exhausted sigh. She didn’t know how their original caretaker, Martha, put up with these two let alone discipline them, as she was getting a headache from the two of them in an endearing way. </p><p>“Be careful you two. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”</p><p>Yusei and Crow packed some food and some supplies before heading off towards the mansion. Yusei insisted that they take a horse and supply wagon to carry the wood as well as the equipment they were taking with them. The path winded down through the dark parts of the forest, even in the day it was easy to get lost. The forest created a barrier that stopped time or so it seemed. They just needed to get to the mansion before nightfall as that was when the really spooky legends start to come together. The mansion always seemed to have a perpetual fog around it. They knew they were close.</p><p><em>So far no twins in sight.</em> Yusei really hoped that the twins didn’t show because they made a bet early on and he’d be out of 50¢ if he lost.</p><p>It felt like another hour or so until they had reached the mansion. It needed to be razed by Neo Domino standards, but it was still pretty put together despite it being in the middle of the woods. Some say the twins are the ones who are keeping the house together as their spirits are bound to the boards and fibers of the house. So far they haven’t seen either of the twins. When they had cut through the fog, Crow headed straight for the garden, he gave Yusei a gesture to follow him. In the overgrown garden of weeds there were two markers made that seemed to be made out of wood. Crow got on his knees and beckoned Yusei to do the same.</p><p><em>Crow is out of his mind. I don’t know what the hell</em> <em>he's doing, but I guess I’ll play along</em>. Crow set his bag down and brought out two apples and two sets of dried Calla lilies.</p><p><em> When in the hell did Crow have time to get flowers?!</em> He gave one apple and a set of flowers to Yusei. He quietly directed Yusei to put the fruit and flowers onto the earth in front of the marker. Before crow spoke with a different softness.</p><p>“Hey Ruka and Rua, it’s me Crow. I know I haven’t visited lately and I apologize for it. But I did bring a few extra things for you while I was away. I brought a friend too, well he’s my adopted brother if you will, with me. We ask that you let us inside, I’m missing a piece of my texts and I believe it’s here. If that’s not enough to convince you, we brought a few supplies in from town to help out with the mansion upkeep today.”</p><p>Yusei was seriously confused, Crow was talking to a grave marker. Yusei wasn’t superstitious of supernatural occurrences but this took the cake. They both waited together, Crow was looking for a sign that allowed or denied them entrance into the house. The back door swung open gently, with the rusty hinges basing a welcome to the two guests, granting them entrance.</p><p>The duo both got up and sauntered into the old house. Inside, Yusei was completely convinced that it must’ve been an illusion. It looked way too nice to be abandoned, and there was no way Crow could be fixing it up all by himself. </p><p>"Believe me now Yusei?” Yusei still wasn’t convinced, leading him to inspect the hinges </p><p>“Well it was an old door that clearly needed its hinges replaced or it wasn’t closed all the way by the previous visitors.” </p><p>Crow pinched the skin on the bridge of his nose in desperation and sighed in irritation. Yusei was really that dense.</p><p>“You idiot.. the twins were the ones who let us in. Clearly you’ve never heard of them since you either lived under a rock your life or didn’t pay attention to anything I’ve said.” Crow took a seat on the dusty couch in the parlor and getured for Yusei to sit down.</p><p>“You see, this mansion hasn’t always been here. It belonged to an elite family that formality resided in the Topoplis, or Tops for short. This mansion was one of their many houses in the country.. The twins stayed here for a good majority of their life with their parents just leaving them here with servants. It was lonely for them. I think they’re dead but I’m not entirely sure if they actually are. They came across a weird ouija board of some sort that Rua was messing around with. They can still see others and interact with them to an extent.”</p><p>Yusei nodded listening slowly, he was still taking everything in. He wasn’t fully convinced of everything but still let Crow talk,</p><p>“Here- Rua! Ruka! Come on down!”</p><p>Any doubt Yusei had was casted aside, as he was hearing two sets of footsteps clearly echoing through the parlor, as two twin children scrambled down the stairs. One boy and one girl. The girl had her hair up in two buns with a faded blue dress, while the boy wore a faded brown child’s three piece suit. Their fashions were clearly not from the current period, maybe from 10 or 20 years ago at most.</p><p>The twins ran to hug Crow, they started to clamor on about how they missed him and what they had brought for them. Crow got out his bag and brought out two items, a kaleidoscope and a whip and top.</p><p>“Take your pick!" Crow always felt like he was a dad whenever it came to any children, orphaned or in a loving family. He treated them all as his own, loved. </p><p>“Thank you Crow!!” Both children took the items. Despite being holographic, they could grasp physical items. This absolutely confused Yusei, as the ghosts he’s heard of can’t really grab objects and can only appear in the physical world.</p><p>“Kids this is Yusei, he’s my brother.” The Twins took a long look at Yusei, as he looked starkly different to Crow. Rua wasted no time at all poking at Yusei. He was absolutely enamored with him, he was checking out and messing with Yusei’s jacket.</p><p>“Whoaaaaaaa... he truly IS like what you said Crow!” As the male twin started to poke Yusei to make sure that he wasn't an illusion of a sort. To make sure the fabric of realisty was working. </p><p>
  <em>Smack!</em>
</p><p>“Owwwww! Ruka That hurt!” <em>They really <strong>were</strong> children.</em>  The male twin rubbed back of his head as the girl twin glared at him angrily with both hands on her hips in irritation before crossing her arms.  </p><p>"You’re being rude Rua! You haven’t even introduced yourself!” </p><p>The girl straightened up and curtsied to Yusei.</p><p>“I’m Ruka. The smarter one-" Rua took immediate offense to his ego and started to immediately defend himself. </p><p>“HEY” She shrugged her shoulders,</p><p>“It’s true!” Rua pouted as he was ready to clobber his twin he remembered he was in front of guests.</p><p>“Oh! I’m Rua! We’re twins”</p><p>Ruka let out a sigh, “Forgive him we don’t get very many visitors."</p><p>Yusei nodded “I can see. But how’d you guys end up the way that you did?..”</p><p>Ruka and Rua looked at each other, “We really don’t know.." </p><p>"I was playing with a board of some sort and the next thing we knew we were like this.”</p><p>“The weird thing is, our bodies disappeared and the board had some weird engraving on it.” Yusei raised an eyebrow in curiosity.</p><p>“Do you still have the board?”</p><p>———</p><p>Time was passing through the performance season without any issue. This season felt different. Aki couldn’t explain it. It wasn’t the circus outfits or even her normal wear. Divine always bought her new and latest gowns from Neo Domino. He always claimed that it was so then the tailors could deconstruct the latest fashion styles to prevent a dated appearance. “It’s for the audience” he would claim. She didn’t mind the new clothes, despite her protests that he blantanly ignored. Her acts were typically great, audible gasps intriguing the audience into wanting more. More was what she needed to give to them. Her best, however, was never good enough. She didn’t want to be the poster child for Arcadia’s Movement. Her desires never really lied in fame or entertaining the masses. It didn’t help that there are rumors surrounding the circus that someone from within was abducting children late at night. There was a short investigation conducted, though Security didn’t find anything at the grounds or at the main building. Although many still had their doubts.</p><p>Doubt wasn’t what Aki needed.</p><p>She always kept pushing herself to the limit and Divine has come close to nearly shoving her over that line. Many nights she would cry herself to sleep, the stress was getting to her after years of shoving it aside. She couldn’t do this business anymore. She didn’t want it. She wanted to go home to her parents. She’d be of legal age soon so it really wouldn’t have mattered.. right?</p><p>She needed to talk with Divine, actually talk with him.</p><p>Not ask him odd questions and then cower away in fear.</p><p>It was bad timing as it was mid season and outside of the Neo Domino border in a clearing off the highway. Miles of forest surrounded them so she wouldn’t be able to go home easily if she wanted.</p><p>She needed a break.</p><p>This business was started to tear at the seams of her soul. After her performance that evening she was dressed in what she called her cool down outfit. That was a red gown that reached down to her calves. She wore a black corset to help readjust her posture. The sleeves were puffed with gold embroidery on the ribbon decorations at the end of the cuffs. Her button hook boots were black with gold rose adornments.</p><p>Entering Divine’s mobile office, he was sitting at his desk hurriedly putting away the money in tips he had collected at the performance and locked it in a safe. He was genuinely surprised to see Aki this late at night, as she normally goes back to her tent after every performance. He smiled sweetly to her as he tried to play it cool, he didn’t want to startle her.</p><p>“What brings you here this late at night? I thought you would want to get some sleep before practice tomorrow?” Aki gave a nervous smile but she took a few steps closer and continued to hold her gaze to divine.</p><p>He started to speak, “ if it’s about the card, you can keep it. It seems to have a connection with you... and the ouija disk you can keep too.”</p><p>Aki was surprised, she’s been using Divine’s special disks. It was a wooden slab in the shape of an L that had special markings that hooked to her arm. She was able to summon real monsters without the assistance of Pepper’s Ghost effect synchronously. The only difference was that these monsters can do real damage to real people. The spectacle captivated the audience, into coming back for more each and every week. </p><p>It made Divine’s Shows different from Heartland’s to drive competition. It wasn’t patented because it was rejected by the patent’s office, and when word came out others started to rush and experiment with their own equipment too.</p><p>“You can keep the deck too. You’ve become really experienced with it and it would be useless for you to not have it on you.” Aki smiles and thanks him as she really wasn't expecting that from him.</p><p>“Now.. what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?” Aki started to stumble with her words. She lost any and all courage she had to talk to Divine.</p><p>“Ah-umm.. uh nevermind. Thank you Divine!”</p><p>She then scurried out of his office. He gave a sigh of relief as he pulled out a letter that was addressed to Aki. Despite her parents not having sole custody of their daughter any more, they would keep sending letters in hopes they would reach her. It usually stopped at Divine's desk as he would give an averaged answer that would pass as Aki. He had to find a different place to hide these as he was getting more and more of them lately according to the recent letters from Headquarters. Burning them outside would draw too much suspicion but he knew he needed to do something about them. It was too easy to go through the trash, so he kept a hold onto them. But the emotional pain Aki was going through was making him profits. He needed to keep her around. It would be hard for him to top what he has out right now.</p><p>Aki waited until the next few nights until she was able to speak her mind.</p><p>“Divine.. I want to leave.” Divine stopped at his desk in disbelief, before giving a heartbroken look. He knew it would make Aki feel guilty.</p><p>“ Aki.. why would you want to leave?” Aki bit her lip, she wanted a quick break, at most a week! The audience could afford to miss a few days without her. Divine sauntered from his desk to her and put his hands on her shoulders,</p><p>“We need you to stay..<em> I</em> need you to stay. You’ve been doing a fantastic job here!” He rolled his head back, to further exxagerate his movements.</p><p>"<em>I</em> have given you support, special lessons, extra spoils.. and <em>this</em> is how you return the favor to me? By <em>leaving me</em>?"  </p><p>She averted her gaze slightly, as in a way he was right. If she was going to standup to him, this was the time to do it. </p><p>“I, I just need a break. The show business is getting to me-"</p><p>“But what about your fans? " </p><p>She couldn't look him in the eyes, in a sense it was asking a lot but she needed to take one small little break, then she'd be good as new!</p><p>“They can afford to miss me for a few performances. And I feel that I’ll be good enough to make a living in society. You’ve taught me everything I knew about controlling my powers. As long as I’m not angry, I’ll be fine. Just like what you said!”</p><p>Divine knew that she was just eating up all the lies he’s been spewing to her. But this was getting irritating. She needed to drop asking so many questions and accept her place. He could see that this must've been something that she wanted to bring up for quite some time, based on her body language.</p><p>“And I’ll be able to be my best-"</p><p>He gave a sigh, over exaggerating as it usually got most of his performers to shut up when they wanted something, like a pass to leave for the weekend of a huge performance.  </p><p>“You’re not leaving.”</p><p>“Why? You said that I could visit my parents when I asked.”</p><p>“Sweetheart,” Divine took his hands off her shoulders and walked back over to his desk. He then pulled out a couple of papers out of his desk.</p><p>“ I didn’t want to tell you this, but you’ve left me no choice.. Since it was your main motivation to get better from when I first met you. Your parents don’t want you. They didn’t want you in the first place. They’ve given me full guardianship of you.” Aki was shocked, she felt anger and sadness flare in her eyes. Her voice started to break like porcelain hitting the floor.</p><p>“Th-that’s not true! They wouldn’t sell me off! Yeah, it seemed weird that they never called or anything-“</p><p>Divine pointed at the contract signature and he separated the papers out to reveal both certificates. Her glass soul, shattered into pieces. She started to sob violently, as she only just found out about this. Divine tried to walk over to her to comfort her but she pushed him away. He gave a heavy sigh and started to put everything back in its’ rightful place.</p><p>“I didn’t want to tell you as it would crush any motivation you had.. But they gave all rights to me when I first took you in.” Aki kept crying as the realization was setting in, he was getting irritated that she was sobbing. </p><p>" Ca..Can I at least leave so I can–"</p><p>He had quite enough of this and really had lost it with her.</p><p> </p><p>"You're <strong>not fucking</strong> leaving!"</p><p> </p><p>He wasn't sure when but he must have smacked her. As she suddenly became quiet, reduced her down in size, with fear reading in her eyes. </p><p>He leaned in real close to her face “ Pull yourself the fuck together! Before I have to do that for you too!", before pulling back away. He had forgotten one itsy bitsy thing though, she was fully conscious and aware of what he did.</p><p>This wasn’t one the times where he was in control. Emotion got the better of him and he slipped on his own steps to fame. The fear in her eyes with the slight outline of a lightened handprint across her cheek. He felt the relief wash over since it stopped her crying but any trust she had in him was now gone. The only things he had going for him was the continual contract extension and suppressing information to Security. </p><p>She quietly excused herself and made her way out of his office overwhelmed with a choking sense of worthlessness. Divine took out a bottle of vodka, and took off the cap before swigging the warm alcohol, feeling the burn his down throat.</p><p>He was going to need to drink all of it tonight. She needed to take a long walk to clear her head, unfortunately that wasn't going to happen. </p><p>As she walked back to her tent Misty passed by and noticed her tears. Misty was a contortionist, nicknamed “The Reptile Queen” for adding in live snakes to her act while working with the snake tamers. She always was caught in clothes acceptable for riding bicycles, dresses wouldn’t be able to cut it for her. Her and her little brother Toby hadn’t been at Arcadia’s movement for long, but was only accepted due to Toby’s abilities.</p><p>It was only a year she had been with the group but she knew something wasn’t right with the organization. Toby had always been berated by Divine about his abilities even though they were only starting to develop. She always took note that Aki was isolated at every chance after every practice at main headquarters. Out in the woods it was more relaxed with patrol, but Aki was still isolated. She had thought it was because Aki was a “rising star” and needed to be pampered. She’s interacted with Aki a handful of times, while Toby sees her more on a daily basis. Aki clearly was treated better than the rest of Divine’s performers, but never gave a clear indication that she was enjoying all the attention she was receiving, if anything she was uncomfortable with it.</p><p>A weight waiting to crush her from above if she didn’t speak with the right words.</p><p>Misty didn’t like seeing her co-performers, especially the women, crying. She quickly became a “mom” figure to some of the younger ones who had shown promise in Divine’s eyes. Misty didn’t remotely mind, as it helped Toby make friends within the circus. Misty put her hand on Aki’s shoulder and offered to walk her back to her tent. As they walked back Aki let out the anguish that has been sitting on her heart. Misty put her biases aside as she led her back to her tent.</p><p>“ I want to take a walk in the forest Misty.. Can we do that?” This confused Misty as she and Toby were allowed to go anywhere, despite her being slightly older than Aki.  </p><p><em>Even if Aki was a rising star, she was asking to walk around? In her own terf? She’s about the same age as me..</em> Misty nodded and gave a smile,</p><p>“Of course we can.”</p><p>When the two made it back to her tent, aki just sobbed into Misty's arms, she wanted to leave. Just one break.</p><p>Her warning from Divine made it perfectly clear that he didn't want her to leave. Misty was absolutely <em>not</em> okay with this, it's one thing to verbally belittle a performer from having a bad day. But to physically harm them? Misty knew that she <em>needed </em>to get herself and Toby out from there as soon as possible. </p><p>Grabbing a few things, mainly her ouija board “duel disk”, her deck of cards and her ace card Divine gave to her “Black Rose dragon”. She did grab a canteen of water that was mostly full. Her and Misty strolled back out before heading directly to the surrounding forest. Misty had to explain to the guards that she was Aki’s chaperone for the night before paying some extra money to make sure Divine didn’t find out. Aki was kept on a short leash for “her benefit”, even though it didn't make much sense to Misty. They strolled under the dense trees blocking out most of the moonlight. Aki let out what was on her heart and her desire to leave the group. Misty took in the information that she was receiving from Aki, she was definitely living another life in the same organization. Misty explained her treatment and other performers which completely opened her eyes of the reality she had been living in.</p><p>“How about you leave with me and Toby when your contract expires?.. We wouldn’t have much but it would help you with a break? ” Aki bit her lip, she wanted to take up Misty’s offer but she wasn’t sure how long Divine was going to hold onto her.</p><p>“ I would love to, but Divine keeps extending my contract. And, well he's acting as my guardian..”</p><p>“We can wait for you.”</p><p class="p1">Aki turned to face Misty to thank her, but before she could Misty let out a scream of fear of what was pouncing mid air behind Aki. Aki turned quickly to get her disk out, but not quick enough to summon a monster. The two separated as a deranged animal of the sort had jumped between them. Misty backed away slowly towards the camp, as this caught the creature’s attention. Without a plan in place and not a second to lose, </p><p class="p1">“Misty, RUN!”</p><p class="p1">Misty nods and darts back off. Aki took a monster out of her deck and summoned it in attack mode. “GO Rose tentacles!”</p><p class="p1">The monster obediently took out the command as its thorny whip grabbed the creature chasing Misty. The creature screeched out in pain before facing its new opponent with a seething hatred against the crimson woman. Aki realized that she did not have any plan in place whatsoever and took a sprint into the deep forest with an angry animal chasing her. Her monsters may be summoned for performances, but their cards <em>did</em> have attacks that doubled as apart of acts if needed. </p><p class="p1"><em>Fantastic. I don’t know where I’m going,</em> she briefly looked behind to the thing chasing her with hungry eyes.</p><p class="p1">
  <em>If I don’t do anything soon I’m done for.</em>
</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">She started to approach a thick fog, as she pulled out a card to summon it,</p><p class="p1">
  <em>Thud!</em>
</p><p class="p1">She tripped over a thick tree stump and dropped her drawn card. As she tried to reach for her card before realizing she could draw another one, she was pinned down by the wolf that looked humongous to be a normal wolf.</p><p class="p1">She couldn’t move.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. The ball and the board</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Misty and Aki become separated during the night. What will happen to them?</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am in class when this was being produced, so there won't be as frequent updates to this story as I would like but I am producing one shots on the side to keep up the content!</p><p>I do not own or am associated with the Yu-gi-oh franchise. Please review!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">She felt the warm breath of this massive wolf pinning her down into the dirt below her. It bared its teeth as it started to sniff around her body. She was paralyzed with fear, at the mercy to an enraged animal that was starting to tear at her flesh. She wanted to cry out, but knew it would only make matters worse for her. The monster she summoned earlier was nowhere to be found to give commands, her disk was meant for shows not combat. She dug her hands slowly into the earth to call upon the plants in the forest, in pleas that they would help her in her time of need. Her concentration was interrupted as gunshots could be heard.</p><p class="p1">It took the creature’s attention away from her to the flying bullets striking the wolf into the shoulders. Unfortunately, blood spattered onto her face, before the wolf cried in terror from another shot. The wolf loosed its grasp on Aki, before stumbling into the bushes. She was shaking from the leftover adrenaline in her body of processing near death. She’s done dangerous stunts before, but that was something she was trained for. Malicious deranged animals was not one of them. If anything it was not in her department. She slowly raised her body up using her elbows for leverage. She turned her head to see one figure emerge from the bushes. He held up his kerosene lamp, to bring a source of light to the frightened woman. He gave a soft smile, careful to not show any of his teeth.</p><p class="p1">“Are you alright, miss?”</p><p class="p1">Aki slowly nodded as she started to get up off the ground. She was enamored with him, he looked like he was stuck in time. A portrait painting that was well taken care of. His eyes could capture the deep blue oil pantings that hung in Divine’s office. She took a glance over at the maimed wolf’s body in the bushes, it cried out in agony from the pain. Yusei side-stepped the bushes to the maimed animal, he took a look at its fur, specifically on its front legs but also on its neck.</p><p class="p1">He then raised the revolver, “Sleep well, may the earth reclaim you as its own.”</p><p class="p1">He squeezed the trigger, to put the animal out of its misery. Aki startled at witnessing this, man, killing the animal. He then took his left hand to extract the bloodied silver covered bullets out from the animal. They were hard to come by, he had to make every shot count. He placed the bullets in a smaller velvet bag and stuffed the soiled glove in the bag as well.</p><p class="p1">“ I’m so sorry you had to witness that. A lady like you shouldn’t have to be subjected to witnessing such killings. I had to make sure that it wasn’t an old friend of mine. He has gone missing for a few years, the last time I saw him he was in this forest when we had gotten separated. Most say he’s dead.. I know he’s not one to die so easily. Especially, to such demented creatures in this forest.”</p><p class="p1">He re-holstered the gun to his belt before looking back up. He walked over to her and gave an outstretched clean gloved hand to her.</p><p class="p1">" My name is Yusei.. Yusei Fudo." </p><p class="p1">She slowly took it, he pulled her up a little too hard and she ended up knocking into his chest. She blushed with embarrassment in her eyes.</p><p class="p1">A flash of red glowed like bright lights on their arms. They both had lost their balance as their auras had glowed. Once the lights dimmed down to nothing, the marks on their arms did not fade back out. Shock and surprised danced a waltz around them as questions formulated in their heads. Aki had no doubt that Divine would make her put on more makeup to cover up her now visible tattoo.</p><p class="p1">“Did you just-“</p><p class="p1">“Yep, it wasn’t just you.”</p><p class="p1">“Agree that we address this later?”</p><p class="p1">“Agreed.”</p><p class="p1">Silence danced between them as they did not know what just happened. It was a night they won’t forget. He broke the wall of silence, she looked familiar to him. He wanted to make sure it was the same circus girl that he had peered upon before. Whether she was or not, she was breathtaking, even dirtied up and with her clothes torn up a little.</p><p class="p1">“Well, uh miss-"</p><p class="p1">This was her chance to introduce herself as herself. No formalities or Divine standing over her shoulder. She could breathe for a minute. Introduce herself as her own person, not to be bound by his rules. It was a strange but freeing feeling.</p><p class="p1">“Aki. Just Aki.”</p><p class="p1">He smiled a little, holding his dim kerosene lamp in his hand.</p><p class="p1">“Alright <em>just</em> Aki, I’m sure you figured out these woods aren’t kind to anyone. I can lead you home- "</p><p class="p1">Aki’s expression turned to one of concern with a little bit of fear pulling her a bit back.</p><p class="p1">“Oh no no no no! I- I can take myself home.” Yusei raised a brow, he wasn’t a dummy.</p><p class="p1">“In these woods? “ he gave a slight scoff “ Do you even know your way back?”</p><p class="p1">Aki gave a quick glance as she realized that she did not know where she was. The thick fog wasn’t exactly helping either. He gave a sigh and extended his hand back out.</p><p class="p1">“Do you trust me?” She looked back at him a bit confused. He then repeated his question again. She slowly took his hand.</p><p class="p1">“Well, considering that you just saved my life. I would suppose so.. why?”</p><p class="p1">“I do know a place that we can stay the night at, I can lead you back if you trust me.”</p><p class="p1">She smiled “Lead the way, good sir. But uhh.. Do you have something I could y'know..”</p><p class="p1">She pointed to the blood on her face, as yusei completely forgotten about it. Although it wasn't her blood, and that scent of iron repulsed him, it <em>did</em> make her look quite exquisite.. He reached for a clean cloth and handed it to her before taking off into the fog. </p><p class="p1">She had suggested that they at the very least hold hands, so they don't get separated. </p><p class="p1">It had been a bit since they had started walking together, but she started to get a bit disorientated.</p><p class="p1">“ I know we just met.. But could you carry me?.. The adrenaline has left me a little tired I’m afraid. “</p><p class="p1">He gave a nod, it wasn’t everyday that he could carry a woman home in his arms. He did his best to carry her the way a proper lady like her could be carried.</p><p class="p1">“ I hate to pry.. But where exactly <em>is</em> your home? There’s not too many houses around here if I do say so myself.”</p><p class="p1">He gave a slight chuckle, Aki was quiet for a minute. Her home was in Neo Domino, but she couldn’t return to her old home. Arcadia’s Movement was a source of stress and chaos. But she had to give an answer of some sort.</p><p class="p1">“Well.. I’m with Arcadia’s Movement.. Y’know the freak-show circus that resides in Neo Domino?” She hid her tenseness with a slight bit of laughter.</p><p class="p1">Yusei gave a nod, but hid a sense of excitement. It was the girl he admired from afar. She wasn't happy, censoring herself on details, talking about her experience with Arcadia’s Movement. There had to be more than what meets the eyes. </p><p class="p1">“I’m not employed by that freak show by my choice.. I’m there because, well my parents gave up their guardianship to me. So even if I wanted to go home.. I wouldn’t be able to.”</p><p class="p1">Aki looked away as she felt her shame crawl back over her that crept out of the darkness to smother her in. Yusei didn’t know how to comfort her but he kept listening, he did take notice of the slab of wood that was attached to her arm. It was something similar he had seen for summoning spirits of the dead.. He would have to ask later, as she was likely worn out from her scrape with death.</p><p class="p1">Deciding to learn about her on her own terms, he took a leap of faith, ones that leveled out the playing field.</p><p class="p1">“ What brings you happiness? “</p><p class="p1">Aki was confused. “Why would you want to know what makes me happy?”</p><p class="p1">Yusei gave out a breath. “Well.. I want to know you more as a person. You have pain that’s in your heart, and if there’s something that will bring the happiness out in your soul. I want to see that light come out and light up this world.”</p><p class="p1">She didn’t know how to respond to this,not even Divine had asked her this. Sure he asked what her best <em>skill</em> was, but not what made <em>her</em> happy. Normally she give a generic answer, but that seemed like something that wasn't going to happen. So she fought back on her terms, change the subject and extract information.</p><p class="p1">“ You mentioned earlier that you were looking for a friend. What was he like?”</p><p class="p2">–––––</p><p>Misty ran as fast as she could. Although all the pine trees looked the same.</p><p>The realization kicked in, <em>she couldn’t find her way back.</em></p><p>She strayed the path in a moment of adrenaline, took possession of her mind and kept revving it up like a machine stuck on overdrive. She could feel her heart beating in her mind as her breaths were erratic. Trying to intake all of the air that she could but wouldn’t stay in her body.</p><p>She didn’t have a plan. </p><p>If she came back without Aki, he <em>knew</em> that something would be up.</p><p>It would be worse if she didn’t return.</p><p>Someone could be at stake, and she didn’t want Aki to fall back into Divine’s hands. She hasn’t known Divine for long, based on their short conversations he was <em>not</em> someone to be trusted. How her parents willingly gave him full guardianship was beyond her. But she couldn’t worry about that. She was stuck in an unfamiliar forest with no markers to identify from the direction they came from. The clouds started to block out any ray of light the moon was giving out.</p><p>She slowly wandered to look for her. It would buy her time for a legitimate excuse to save her hide, but putting all the blame on Aki. It was all that she could think of at the moment for a reason to be out past ‘lights out’ but even she wasn’t sure if Divine would buy up that excuse.</p><p>“AKI? WHERE ARE YOU?” Her cries echoed out into the night. </p><p>The sounds of owls and other night creatures echoed through the night. She was lost without a guide. She wandered aimlessly through the forest before giving up. She needed to go back. Without Aki, she knew she was going to be dead meat to Divine, if anything he might release her from her and Toby’s contract early. She still called out, there was no telling what Divine would do if his rising star was missing or dead.</p><p>
  <em>Please be alive Aki..</em>
</p><p>She wandered in deeper to keep calling out for her.</p><p>“Well why are you all the way out here by yourself?”</p><p>Misty turned around to find a woman. She was a little strange. Her green hair was pulled up into a bun, with her v shaped bangs accented her trifocal glasses. Her dress was one of the poorer class but it was strangely upper class. As if she was a maid of a manor, but that wasn’t exactly right. She plainly had a dark dress with a white apron on and she was carrying a covered basket. Her dark shawl gently covered her shoulders, there was an embroidery pattern on it, but she couldn’t see what it was exactly.</p><p>“ Fate brought me to you. I could see it in my cards. “ Misty was confused on whether to trust this strange woman who came out of nowhere.</p><p>“Did Divine send you?”</p><p>The other woman was confused.</p><p>“ I worked for him for a few years. But I had left in search for a simpler life on my own terms, his circus he claims as a paradise to the outside world is the nightmare for all who worked under him. Myself included. From this deck that I had built and learned from others in the troupe, I learned how to read the cards before I left.” She patted her apron pocket.</p><p>“ I may not have the disk to convey them in the physical world, but I believe that I am one with them.. and they are one with me.” The two had silently stared, it felt that the gust of wind brought in a sort of fabled magic. She then took out her deck from her pocket to draw a card.</p><p>“You see miss, in my morning’s draw I drew out of my two decks, Fortune Fairy En, The Fool and Wheel of Fortune. The latter two in Upright. I can show you a glimpse into your future if you rest with me tonight. ”</p><p>Misty wasn’t convinced, this strange woman who lives in the middle of the forest comes out to claim that she was destined to meet her? It seemed odd. Too odd.</p><p>
  <em>I need to be careful. Could she be reading my body language?</em>
</p><p>“How do I know that I can trust you?” The mystery woman gestured around spinning to let her dress flow up in the air. She then stopped, almost tripping herself in the process before saving herself.</p><p>“Between you and me, you don’t have much of a choice. You can trust me, or leave it up to nature to give you mercy to find your way back." As she gestured to the unifromical pine trees surrounding the two of them. </p><p>This strange woman was right. She was stranded in the woods with no way of finding her way back. Divine was going to kick her ass regardless. Misty gave a defeated sigh, “ I suppose you’re right. Lead the way.“</p><p>The woman gave a smile before turning around. She gave a small internal dance of excitement as she was bringing another friend home with her. Her friend wasn’t going to be too excited, but as long as promises were kept no one really cared. The duo wandered onto the off beaten trail through the winding trees, to end up at a small cottage surrounded by groves of trees. It had a warm cozy feeling to it. Misty couldn’t help but worry for her gifted friend.</p><p><em>Aki, please be safe.</em>.</p><p>The two started to bond over their experiences in the Circus, the green haired woman started to pour water from her priming pump in the kitchen. She offered tea to Misty in her cozy little home. The interior had a little bit of spookiness to it, it too was stuck in time, not in a current way. But she clearly held on to every piece of furniture she could get her hands on. Many repairs she did herself, which was quite evident based on her handiwork.</p><p>“I’m not sure why Divine chose me, considering I don’t have any special powers. All I do is read fortunes!”</p><p>“Probably because he needed some “ normal people” to attract crowds? I mean he does run a business.. Oh! And I never got your name, I’m Misty “</p><p>“Carly. Pleasure to meet you. You may have not been in the same contract year as me, but I was known as the Fortune lady. Because well, I tell fortunes.” She started to get two teacups with matching chalices from her wooden cupboard</p><p>“Many thought I was a fraud, while others believe that I have a power. Whether I do or not is up to you. I don’t choose your destiny, but fate has a strange way of keeping and tearing people apart-Green tea? “</p><p>“Oh- yes please. But-“</p><p>“How did I entangle myself with Divine? Well, to make money I used to play card games to make money. Play real late at night at the bars in Neo Domino, despite it being late at night and not suitable for a 'lady like myself' to be out late at night. He must’ve been at one or two of the games I played, as he offered an ‘opportunity that the stars had foreseen for me’. Of course I accepted, he gave me these two decks. A fairy fortune deck and a tarot deck. One is more “kid friendly” than the other, but I believe they hold equal in their weight. Divine, didn’t take any bullshit from anyone. Maybe a little too frequently. His finances weren’t exactly in order, and he did take in a new person before me- “</p><p>“ How do you know all of this?” Carly sighed and glanced an annoyed look.</p><p>“ Arcadia’s movement experimented with summoning monsters without pepper’s ghost effect, borderline unethical treatment of the performers, has unnerving and possibly cursed items, but you’re wondering how I know his financial situation? Does the oracle ball, ring any sort of bells for you?”</p><p>Misty briefly remembered for a moment before becoming flustered at that realization, “ You stole from Divine? And got away with it?” Carly got briefly flustered and tumbled over her words in her defense,</p><p>“Well, it’s not exactly stolen. Y’see I um-borrowed it before I left and I haven’t had the chance to return it. Plus it’s not stolen, it was lost at Divine’s and found a place in my home.”</p><p>A pair of heavier footsteps could be heard from the floor above, clomping around as it was trying to dance but kept tripping over street curbs. It wasn’t long until this mysterious man came downstairs, and to have a shocked look on his face as there was another person occupying the round wooden table in front of them,</p><p>“C-Carly what the hel-“</p><p>“Jack! Mind your manners, we have a guest visiting. There is some tea over on the counter if you would like any.” Jack panicked and pointed at Misty with a tinge of anger in his voice.</p><p>“But what is that woman doing here? In my spot?”</p><p>Carly had enough of his questions.</p><p>“ Jack- she’s a guest. We may have private property, but the closest lawyer is in Neo Domino. So unless you want to go undercover with another alias. <em>Be polite</em>. “ Jack closed his mouth and gave Misty a scowl before turning to get some tea. Carly then turned back to Misty.</p><p>“ I’m sorry for his behavior. He’s rough on the outside, but he is gentle. You see he’s not considered alive.”</p><p>“ But he’s physically right here?”</p><p>“ Well yes, but actually no. He’s not a supernatural creature, but he’s in hiding to get away from an arranged marriage. Thing is, he’s technically “ dead” due to an administrative screw up, but can’t get it fixed unless he goes back home.. to be forced into a marriage. It would cause problems, so he’d wait a year to get it fixed.. Or so he keeps telling me." Carly glared at Jack as he puts his hands up in a mock surrender but being smart enough to be quiet, before she turns back to Carly. </p><p>" I can’t exactly own property in either Neo Domino or Heartland.. yet, since I’m technically not married, but since we’re outside city limits and belong to the Outskirts we answer to Sherry. I’m not sure how she made it in this world, but may she be blessed.”</p><p>Misty tried taking in all of the information she was given. The blonde haired man was irritated but his expression seemed to soften a bit as he drank his tea. He seemed to listen to Carly, but he clearly had an ego issue. Like a lion trying to make itself bigger with its fur to instill fear into others for dominance. He gave a gruff sound before putting the porcelain cup into the sink, before walking towards the hallway to go upstairs.</p><p>“ Carly, be sure that our guest, has seen the ghost of Jack Atlas and nothing else.”</p><p>Carly gave an excited smile. “ Of course Jack!” Her face lit up in excitement.</p><p>“Say- how about I show you your fortune?” Misty gave a sigh as she typically didn’t believe in that sort of thing, but it couldn’t hurt to peek right? Maybe she had a happier life with her, her brother and Aki in Heartland.</p><p>“Sure, why not?”</p><p>Carly gave a burst of excitement before grabbing Misty by the arm to another darkened room. It was smaller for sure, but it had many candles, some religious sects Misty couldn’t quite make out, a crystal ball on the table, and velvet. Lots and lots of velvet. It was a jarring shift she hadn’t expected from the cottage, but Carly did use to work for Divine after all.</p><p>The two sat across from each other, Carly started to speak in a foreign language of some sort, french or latin? Misty couldn’t quite tell for certain. She could feel an energy shift of some sort. But nothing in the room physically changed, but it was something she felt different in her soul. But after all it was a typical carnival trick to entrance the customer. Carly started to caress the ball as if she was trying to reach into it. Without skipping a beat she took out her first deck.</p><p>“ From this deck I want you to take a card. Just one, it doesn’t matter which one. Just the one you feel drawn to. This represents your immediate fortune for the next 24 hours.”</p><p>Carly spread the six cards out onto the soft cloth, Misty felt her left hand tap the second card. Carly picked up the card as she put the others away, she flipped over the card “ I see, Fortune Fairy Hu has drawn to you. You may not find happiness today, but sorrow won’t find you either. Maybe the most is guilt. Either way no harm will come to you.”</p><p>Carly then drew the other card back towards her to get out the other deck.</p><p>“ From this deck, is over the course of time. Could be within the next few weeks or months it depends on how strong your faith is in fate itself. From using these cards I can predict a visual if you don’t have a belief. Do you have anyone important or close to you?” Misty was caught off guard considering this was her fortune, and not anyone else’s.</p><p>“How do I know that you’re not a charlatan?”</p><p>Carly laughed “I just only asked a question, believe what you want, but it’s a gateway to a possibility you may never know. So I ask.. Do you have anyone close to you in your life?”</p><p>Misty gave a small answer</p><p>“ My brother Toby. He’s important to me. He was the reason I was able to find employment in Neo Domino in the first place. But I do not trust him with Divine, he’s too ruthless. Especially with Toby.” Carly nodded.</p><p>“ Understandable. He’s an important piece to you, keeping balance I see.” Carly gestured to Misty to pick her cards. Carly flipped over the three she chose, the first Upright position as Death. Misty looked slightly horrified.</p><p>“Don’t worry! Death just means that there is a cycle ending and there may be a change in your life since it is upright.” Carly flipped over the second card, in reversed “ Ooh the Tower, reversed that means that is a disaster approaching or you avoided a disaster. But this is something to keep an eye on.”</p><p>Carly flipped over the final card in its’ upright position “The star! This is a good card to draw, you have faith or a rejuvenation within yourself. After the events of the tower.” She then collected the cards and placed them in front of herself.</p><p>“ Do you want me to see if I can visually see into the future for-”</p><p>“Yes. I want to prevent the tower from happening if at all possible.” Carly gave a sigh, <em>t</em><em>hat’s not how fate works Misty.</em></p><p>“Alright.. I’ll see what I can do. I can see blurbs of visions in this ball, its’ short so I’ll try to interpret it all”</p><p>She laid out her hands and beckoned Misty to put hers on top of them as she started to chant in that language again. It wasn’t before long that the energy in the air shifted, to instead to one concentration in the room. It was certainly a product from Divine. Carly looked into a ball as the scene played out.</p><p>“It appears to be a meeting.. You and another with brown hair look happy. One other man. Red hair? He was smiling too. It seems your wishes have been granted”</p><p><em>Toby!.. And Divine?</em> As that scene faded it focused on two other figures. It was the red haired man from before “ I can’t tell what the other figure is.. But the man with red hair is giving them.. A sword? I- can’t tell and-” it was quickly washed away to another scene to Misty standing next to another figure, smiling.</p><p>“ Oh? This is a mystery person with light hair.. They are quite taller than you and seem to be good friends.”</p><p>Carly then closes her eyes as the ball of energy starts to even back out to the rest of the room. She started to yawn “ Oh I haven’t had such a strong vibe for a while. It’s made me quite tired. Come now I’ll show you where you can sleep. Since you work for Divine, I gather you must be up for early practice. I certainly don’t miss those days.”</p><p>Carly gave a chuckle at her own humor. Misty was silently processing what she had seen,</p><p><em> who was the other person with Divine</em>? <em>Was it me? Was it Aki?</em> <em>There’s no way it could be Toby.</em></p><p>Questions raced through her mind like a marathon trying to figure out what she saw and what it meant. Carly gave a sigh,</p><p>“ Those visions aren’t guaranteed to happen. It is a peek into a possible future, and it was only one that I peered into.”</p><p>Carly helped Misty from her chair</p><p>“ You can borrow a night gown of mine, and I have a guest bedroom setup since rarely anyone comes around these parts.It’s a lot to take in, but you need to rest. Divine’s going to have questions if he doesn’t fire you first.. Alright?”</p><p>Misty gave a nod acknowledging her. They climbed the tiny staircase to upstairs at the top of the stairs to a long vertical hallway Carly had pointed left.</p><p>“Your room will be on the left. The phantom and myself will be on the opposite side of the hall.” They had both parted and entered their respective rooms. Misty changed into a flower nightgown. She wound the alarm clock to set it to go off around 7am. Practice typically started around 8am depending on how late the performers were up. If she was lucky she could have an hour to get back to camp without Divine noticing. At this point he could have an entire guard searching out for the two of them. She was going to have to come up with an excuse without putting Jack and Carly into the mix, but she wasn’t sure if she could do it without having Aki taking the fall. She knew something would happen to Aki, she didn’t trust Divine one bit. She rather be part of a backstage mishap that would cause her death than meet with Divine for a “personal assessment for her health”. She climbed under the warm blankets and let her heavy eyes close on their own.</p><p>
  <em>Aki, please be safe for your own sake.</em>
</p><p> </p><p class="p1">------</p><p class="p2">The red haired psychic knew there was something odd about the man she had met. Besides from the fact that her and his birthmark glowed when they touched, they had started to bond together about their ambitions. Well at least of what they could do. As she was talking to him she couldn’t help but find that there was something peculiar about him, maybe it’s the way he’s dressed?</p><p class="p2">No.. Maybe the scar near his eye? She couldn’t figure it out, it forced her to pace in her mind trying to figure it out. Her thoughts were interrupted when they came across the mansion. It was reminiscent of her childhood home in Neo Domino.</p><p class="p2">“It reminds me of home, a little worn but still good.”</p><p class="p2">Yusei gave a smile, “ You’ll like the inside then.” He gently helped her back onto her feet before he started to shout</p><p class="p2">“Rua! Ruka! Crow! I’m back and I brought a guest, it’s going to be a ball tonight!”</p><p class="p2"> The front doors swung open, allowing the two entrances to step into the main parlor. Aki had a smile filled of grief, it reminded her too much of home. She wanted to twirl around the parlor feeling the chains of her sorrows from the circus to fly off, and to let the memory of her parents plague her mind in its place. It was an exchange but it was one she was okay with in the meantime. When she twirled by a mirror she stopped to look in it. She was a mess. She started to clean herself up and remove the twigs and leafs in her hair. She heard a set of footsteps come down the stairs to this orange haired man. He was from a poorer district she could tell, but he was tired.</p><p class="p2">“Oi Yus, the hell are you- oh! I didn’t realize that we had a guest.” He came off the staircase to take her hand and kiss it.</p><p class="p2">Aki was a bit flustered at his class, which made Yusei a little jealous. But quickly swept the thought away as Crow would just tease him for it later. She turned back to the mirror to get the loose dirt off of her face. As she was staring into the mirror she could only see one reflection of Crow’s reflection but Yusei’s was.. missing?</p><p class="p2">
  <em>That can’t be right! Am I dreaming?</em>
</p><p class="p2">Crow and Yusei seemed to be huddling together, she wrote it off as lack of sleep.. After all she did need to rest up for her practice session tomorrow.. Or .. Aki mentally slapped herself. She couldn’t leave the Circus!</p><p class="p2">At least not yet anyway, she was lucky that Neo Domino had changed their majority age laws to 18, but she didn’t know much of Heartland’s laws. Well she never got a whiff of news unless it was directed towards the circus due to an injury or foul play was suspected.</p><p>Yusei sipping tea, was clearly annoyed, as he knew that Crow was just doing this to rile him up in retaliation. He gave a heavy sigh.</p><p>“What do you want Crow?” Crow straightened back up and brushed the invisible dirt off of him “ Well I’d thought I’d be polite and introduce myself to our guest–"</p><p>“You didn’t find any sign of your journal out in your secret place did you?”</p><p>“Nope! Not one sign of it whatsoever.”</p><p>“What journal are you looking for?” Crow and Yusei gave a nervous glance to each other. They just met Aki and they couldn’t afford to have her run off with valuable knowledge. <em>Can I trust her?</em></p><p>“It’s something.. Personal, that belongs to me. I do a lot of.. Field work you could say, about the creatures that roam the lands we reside on. Maybe to solve some mysteries. I haven’t had any leads on that or the missing children-”</p><p>“Missing children?”</p><p>“ Yeah, mainly in the Satellite work district. Children will go missing at night, sometimes it’s one or sometimes it’s in troves. Do you know something about it Aki?” Something in her soul struck her. She wasn’t sure what it was, but maybe it could lead to an answer she was looking for from the late night screams she would hear on a nightly basis while at the main building.</p><p>
  <em>Divine isn’t a cruel person. He wouldn’t hurt others would he? That’s not like him.. I mean he did with me, but he was just angry!</em>
</p><p>“Well, I do know that my.. Boss has been taking in some children. But I don’t think he would straight up kidnap children!”</p><p>She then looked away, “ I do hear screams late at night but I don’t know if it’s connected. Whenever I ask about the newer recruits he brings in who <em>are</em> younger, he claims that he brought them in after their parents signed the contract.”</p><p>She held herself, to bring comfort to her insecurity. Yusei and Crow glanced at each other and then back at Aki. Even if it wasn’t anything useful, it was a place to start. Yusei walked over to Aki and placed his ungloved soft hands onto her shoulders.</p><p>“ Aki, even if it’s not your boss you have given us a good place to start.” Aki gave a faint smile, Crow smacked his forehead with his hand.</p><p>“God we forgot to introduce her to the twins! Rua! Ruka! We have a guest!”</p><p>
  <em>The twins?</em>
</p><p>Two sets of footsteps came running from the kitchen into the parlor, Aki started to turn pale as she was seeing ghosts. She started to shake as she put one hand over her mouth and trying to process everything. Yusei ran over to her to see what was wrong.</p><p>“Aki? Are you okay? Aki?”</p><p>“Th-they’re.. Ghosts??”</p><p>Rua sighed and Ruka elbowed him “ You see miss-”</p><p>“You can call me Aki”</p><p>“Miss Aki, we’re not actually dead..our bodies disappeared but we are still alive. Like we are floating through two worlds. All because Rua started playing with some special board with weird engravings on it. An A and an M.” Aki gave a small sigh of relief before a flood of questions and her bloodrush came back.</p><p>
  <em>Board? Engravings? A and M?</em>
</p><p>“Do you still have the board? Maybe I could take a look at it, I mean after all, my boss did create this disk for me. But it would have to be adjusted from the wear on it.”</p><p>“It’s on the table” Ruka pointed to the dusty dining room table. Aki walked over to the board and picked it up. It did have some markings she didn’t recognize but it looked similar to her disk, she then flipped it over. That was when her heart dropped through the floor as her stomach floated in her body. Her pale fingers slid over the familiar carvings of the on the board. She felt her throat run dry, before she turned to the twins.</p><p>“This board.. How did you two get a hold of this board?”</p><p>The twins shrugged as they truly didn’t know, “Our parents had it. We don’t know where it’s from..” Yusei and Crow walked over to get a closer look. Yusei was concerned for Aki as she was struggling to keep a strong voice. He put his gently hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her.</p><p>"Aki what's wrong?" </p><p>“ This board.. It’s from Arcadia’s Movement.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Bonding together</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Aki and Yusei start to bond.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for the comments! It helps me focus on a better direction for this story!</p><p>A primarily Aki and Yusei chapter! I wanted to focus on their characters a bit more. With classes in full swing, chapter updates will be infrequent.<br/>I'm not associated or part of the Yugioh franchise. </p><p>Please read and review.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aki couldn’t help but stand there looking at the board. She needed to know more about the twin’s family.</p><p><em>How did this board get here? Divine always keeps his stuff under lock and key.</em> She took a look at her own board, she knew that her board was a prototype, but even so it was a performance only board. <em>Why is this all the way out here?.. Regardless he can’t have this back in-</em> “Something wrong?”</p><p>Her thoughts came to a screeching halt as Yusei’s voice brought her back. Yusei had his brows furrowed in concern. He wasn’t sure what was going through her mind, but it was something to halt her entire line of thought.</p><p>“Aki? Are you alright?”</p><p>“Ah-I um, yeah.” He didn’t believe her, but considering how stubborn she was. It was something he wasn’t going to argue with her about.</p><p>“I don’t know how or even why this is all the way out here.”</p><p>Crow gave a loud yawn,</p><p>“ Personally I think this is all something we should sleep on. It’s late and I need some sleep.”</p><p>Yusei gave a sigh, he was a night person and primarily slept through the afternoon. He then gestured Ruka and Rua to come into the parlor, he started to huddle with children.. even though he was really the only one crouching. Yusei turned to look find a working clock in the dining room, even though he’s been there long enough to know that there aren’t any working clocks on this floor. As he turned he caught Crow crouching down with the children on the opposite side of the parlor towards the stairs, Ruka having a mischievous grin and Rua having a dumbfounded look on his face.</p><p>“HE HAS A-“ Crow then did his best to cover Rua’s mouth to shush him.. with his hand going straight through Rua’s body. Ruka did the better recover as she was in the same dimensional plane as him. He wasn’t sure what Crow was planning with the disembodied children but knowing Crow it was probably a prank of some sort. He rolled his eyes but then pulled out the small velvet bag, “Oi Crow! Catch!” He then chucked the bag to the other side of the parlor, Crow quickly spun around then jumped to the direction of the bag. He miscalculated and slammed onto the arm of the couch taking the wind out of him for a moment. The twins couldn’t help but giggle,</p><p>“ Damnit Yusei, you didn’t have the decency to hand it to me?” Yusei gave a shrug</p><p>“No, not really.” Crow gave an irritated huff, Aki couldn’t help but giggle.</p><p>“Smartass.” Crow grumbled a bit in pain.</p><p>“ It’s been a long day for everyone.. Ruka could I sleep on the couch?”</p><p>Ruka gave an offended look to Aki “No! You’re not sleeping on the couch! You! Are sleeping upstairs!” Aki was surprised at Ruka’s energy as the child grabbed her arm and dragged her up the stairs. When Yusei was done staring at the scene, he turned to Crow and crossed his arms sassily.</p><p>“Crow.. Do you care to tell me what it is you’re planning?” Crow started to whistle, as he grabbed his pocket watch from his pocket</p><p>“<em>Gee</em>.. would ya just look at the time! It’s like 1am! Time to sleep!” Crow then started to sprint towards the stairs and make a break for it. Yusei started to run after him, Rua then tugged on the cape Yusei had on his shoulders covering his outfit, delaying Yusei’s speed for a moment. Yusei had halted in his tracks as Rua let go of the cape. He faced Rua, but rua started to whistle and started to play dumb claiming that his cape got caught in the closet door.</p><p>“The closet door is <em>next</em> to the stairs Rua.” Gesturing to the closet door. Rua became flustered and started to fumble over his words. </p><p>“Oh, uh- well-“</p><p>Yusei gave a sigh and a laugh. “If you wanted to play you should’ve just say so Rua.”</p><p>“ Yeah, uh well maybe later. I’ve gotta.. gotta help Crow get some books! Uh, later!” Rua then ran up the stairs to head up to the attic. Yusei shook his head and sighed <em>Strange kid.. But we’re all pretty strange, huh? </em></p><p>As he walked up the stairs, he headed to his room, his door was strangely closed. Nonetheless, he gently rested his hand and his head on the cold oak. The crimson haired woman occupied his thoughts again, even though she was already here.</p><p><em>She’s so stubborn.. But gosh she is just lovely</em>. He gave a sigh, <em>s</em><em>he’s only staying for the night. She has to leave in the morning, I can’t.. I’m not going to keep her here for my pleasure. That’s not fair to her.</em></p><p>He balled his fist to let go of a quick fire of anger against injustice. He straightened himself back up and turned the doorknob then gave it a push. How he didn’t hear the voices behind the door was beyond him, as he was not expecting the crimson haired woman to be stripped of her regular outfit to be in a eyelet lace nightgown. It was a lovely fit on her, small pink bows layered onto cuffs and the collar of lace. It didn’t bring any attention to her body as it was a thicker nightgown, probably a winter cut. Ruka was making repairs to Aki’s clothes she had on earlier as they had tears on them, while Aki was reading a book of some sort, likely one of Crow’s journals.</p><p>“ Thank you for letting me borrow this”</p><p>“ Don’t worry about it, it was gift from my mother but I’m still too small for it.”</p><p>“That’s still very sweet of you-“ she turned around and gave a smile “Oh! Yusei, you looked surprised!”</p><p>Yusei couldn’t back out now, if he did he was rude, but he couldn’t kick the two of them out. He straightened up and looked away trying to hide redness emitting from his face like an incident bulb burning brightly in the theater District of Neo Domino.</p><p>“I-I would’ve knocked if I had known if you two were going to be in here. Are you decent Aki?” Aki glanced at herself a little confused of why he was asking that when he she was probably the first thing he saw when he walked right in.</p><p>“I mean unless Ruka is playing a trick on me, then I’m fully dressed. You can come on in Yusei.”</p><p>He gave a sigh of relief and walked on in and sat down on the silk covers on the bed. Ruka was trying to hide her grin, without giving a break away. She knew enough about Yusei from Crow’s stories that he was a good person at heart. “How did I not notice that you were wearing a cape?”</p><p>“Well it’s brooding like me and my fashion sense is ‘to blend in’ “ Yusei gave a hearty chuckle flopped back onto the bed.</p><p>“So I should probably get my things and head down-“ Ruka cut him off mid sentence as she was letting the ribbons free from her hair. </p><p>“ Yusei, you're not sleeping downstairs.”</p><p>Yusei looked confused and leaned up on the bed using his elbows.</p><p>“Well.. where else am I going to sleep? The floor?” Ruka gave a stare. And gestured with her head.</p><p>“You’re sleeping in your bed.”</p><p>“ What about Aki?-“</p><p>“She’s also using your bed.” His blue eyes widened, in the sheer horror that <em>he,</em> will be staying in the same bed as the woman he’s crushing on. Aki, held her hands over her mouth as she was sharing a man that she was absolutely smitten with.</p><p>“Ruka you can’t be serious!”</p><p>“Oh I absolutely am. It would be a health hazard for Miss Aki to stay in the other bedrooms. The only ones that are livable are the ones you and Crow fixed up.. Which is this one and the attic. So unless Miss Aki would prefer to stay with Crow-“</p><p>“Nope, nope that’s perfectly fine! It’s up to whatever Miss Aki would like. Forget that I brought it up.” Aki rolled her eyes and shook her head. Ruka floated over to Yusei and sat next to him before starting to whisper into his ear.</p><p>“You did tell her that you are a- well..” Ruka then pointed at her lips to give Yusei a visual. Aki was confused as hell. It absolutely was a strange night for her, as she wandered into her thoughts she just hoped that Misty made it back to camp safely without harm to her. Yusei felt the embarrassment and the terror of rejection build up into him.</p><p>As he completely forgot that minor detail, he wasn’t planning on telling her.. at least right now<em>. If I did tell her.. would she kill me? I can’t risk her kill me. I can’t tell her now. She took in a lot as it is. It’d be cruel to lay another smack down on her this late.</em> Aki was getting annoyed by the silence and barged between the two.</p><p>"SO.. are we playing charades over here?” The two didn’t have a plan, Ruka pointed to the window infront of them.</p><p>“No! Uhm, we.. we were-“</p><p>“We were looking at the constellations!” Aki was not impressed, as the curtains were still closed. She jumped between the two and opened them to let the moon peer into the darkened room dimly lit by the candle Aki had set ontop of the dresser.</p><p>“If you want to look at constellations you have to open the curtains first. Unless you two have powers that allow you to see through physical objects.” Looking out into the darkened sky she started pointing on the glass.</p><p>“You see that? That’s Capricornus, and over there…” She was like a teacher who was correcting a students work, but eager that they were wanting to learn. She took great joy in the stars, she learned from the massive library of books while staying at main HQ. It helped her keep track of time in the performance season when they were on the road when there wasn’t a stationary calendar. She gave out a yawn and practically jumped onto the bed like a child entertaining themself. She climbed under the silk covers and let her body relax as the worn mattress bent to the will of her body. It’s been awhile since she laid on a soft mattress as this. Yusei got off the bed, letting tension of the bed release a bit, he walked over to his dresser and pulled out a long night shirt. With a pair of pants. He unclipped his cape and hung it up on a rusted hook mounted onto the wall. He then started to pull off his shirt over his head. Aki couldn’t help but stare at him. He wasn’t a massive bodybuilder like at the circus but by god he had some tone to his chest and biceps. Aki could feel her face get really warm as she was admiring every part of him as he was standing there shirtless… Even his scar on his chest ? <em>Oh god .. He’s hot..</em> She felt a nudge from her left side as it snapped her back to reality.</p><p>“Personally, I wouldn’t let this one slip by, you don’t find ones like him everyday y'know.” Aki looked a little red at Ruka. Yusei took notice as he turned that he was getting attention from the ladies in the room. He gave a borderline crude smile as the darkness was in his favor.</p><p>“Now what are we talking about over here? “ He stood there shirtless, craving the attention that Aki was giving him. Aki’s cheeks were the same shade as a beet. It’s not that she’s seen shirtless guys before, she’s seen plenty of those who wanted to be muscle builders and those who were trained to lift 200lbs. She wasn’t impressed with most of them since they weren’t exactly her type. With him it was different. His body spoke in a way she hadn’t seen before, it was different, an entrancement if you will. She could swear that there’s a magnitude of desire dripping from his eyes. She couldn’t look away, as she was desperately trying to make up an excuse that seemed believable.</p><p>“It was, um, about.. about..”</p><p>She was fixated on the scar on his chest, “ Your, scar! On your chest.. and your cheek.."</p><p>Yusei slipped his nightshirt on and stripped his pants in favor for his “night” ones. He normally didn’t go to bed this early, but he had to minimally play the part before she caught on that he was different. He gave out a chuckle before he climbed into the silk sheets on the opposite side of the bed. He ran two of his fingers down her jawline before lifting her chin up to lock eyes.</p><p>“That.. My dear, is a story for another time, preferably when we are both awake.”</p><p><em>You’ll find out soon enough..</em> Yusei released his touch, before flopping back onto the bed shutting his eyes. He just knew that his sleep cycle was going to be screwed up. Aki rolled onto her other side and let her mind go berserk over this handsome stranger that she’d just met. I <em>know I should leave in the morning.. But spending one day with him shouldn’t hurt. I’ll get the break I need and then I can return without a hitch!.. I’m sure Divine will be reasonable.</em></p><p>In a floor above in the collection of dust an books saved from time’s grasp, Crow had been reading up on some of the diaries and myths left behind by the Twin’s parents. He had half a journal already filled on the “crimson dragon”. He felt that it was an odd story, but after talking with Yusei in the past about a birthmark that was fading in and out of existence that seemed odd. He had stalled his research on that earlier in favor of making attempts to bring the twins back into the physical world. Before Aki came along he had no other leads besides from the pieces and parts of some journals that were left behind. The Musty attic brought comfort to Crow. It reminded him of home when him and Yusei “grew up” together under Martha’s care in the Satellite district, with yusei tagging along after his parents had passed. It doubled as Crow's thinking place as it’s where he stored a lot of his journals about the creatures within the area. He really started to delve deep into his mind about the children. He felt that he was a foster father figure, and it physically made him hurt when he had caught wind from Martha that another child had disappeared from her orphanage or in the paper.</p><p>Crow was inspecting the wooden board and comparing Aki’s disk with the one that sealed away Rua and Ruka. So far the only thing that seemed to be in common was that the engraved marks of Arcadia’s movement were on the boards. Although one thing did catch his eye. Aki had an engraving.. or what seemed to be an engraving on her board. When his rough leather gloves brush away the engraving it would spread like water before it returned back to its original state. It had to be magic. There was no doubt about it. Maybe the same magic that was used to seal away Rua and Ruka could be the same magic that is used to kidnap the children? Crow shook his head, there has to be an logical explanation for this. He gave another defeated sigh as he put away his journals and the boards. He flopped into his hammock and let his conscious drift away as he did he could’ve sworn that he saw a faint red light from one side of him, but his eyes were too heavy to investigate it any further.</p><p>Aki woke a little just after sunrise. She had her torn clothes sewn, ready to be worn again. Instead Ruka insisted that she wear a dress that was gift from her mother. Well it wasn’t really a dress. But regardless Aki wore it. She graced the halls in a black blouse with sleeves that were 3/4 puffed before it wrapped around her forearms like Christmas bows. The emerald green skirt wrapped around her midsection buttoned like a sailors uniform before flowing freely down to her ankles. She wanted to make the most out of this day before Divine decided to stick his nose in places it shouldn’t be “out of concern”. But the mark on her arm was still a thought on her mind. Many have told her that it’s a birthmark, but she hadn’t seen anyone else with one.. until now. There were many things about the man she met that she wanted to know more about. He was an absolutely mysterious being of a man, but she couldn’t see his reflection.</p><p><em>Was my mind playing tricks on me? He couldn’t be dead! I mean I saw.. and physically felt him carry me. And even if he was dead, he has a functioning brain.</em> She shook that thought. She found herself out the back door to the garden. She opened the old creaky door and headed back to a sense of familiarity. She took in the memories that flooded her mind of when she would garden in her own backyard as a child. It brought her joy to work with plants, not for a rehearsal for a sick audience.. But for her own joy, to respect plants as they should be respected. Rooted in the ground and taking in their scents. She needed to attend to an overgrown garden that was crying in pain from abandonment. She waltzed into the dried earth and didn’t hesitate to get to work.</p><p>“I’m so sorry that you’ve been left alone for all of these years."</p><p>She didn’t have gloves so she started to use her powers to manipulate the weeds and thick vines. The vines started to shrivel up and the weeds had their life taken from them. From there she had started to uproot the weeds and throw them into a pile that she would leave in the forest later. Weeds and vines may be invasive to a garden, but they still belonged out in nature. She was just moving them to a different home. It didn’t take long for her to notice the markers. A twinge of sadness crept into her soul, she couldn’t find the names that belonged to the markers, but if the holographic children in the house weren’t an indicator enough then she was oblivious. Regardless, as she kneeled to give a prayer to the departed, she moved her skirt so she was careful to not get dirt on the clothes that she borrowing. Yusei had woken up hours later as he was not used to sleeping during the night. He found that Aki was not by his side, he was gravely disappointed, but as he got out to change into his normal wear he did notice that she had left her clothes where she had left them. A silent victory was given internally, that she was still here. He headed outside out the back to find Aki standing admiring her work. The garden had been given new life. It may have been mainly dirt before but the garden had a new chance at life if given. The markers where cleaned off too. It may have been midday, the thick fog was not going to let up. He approached Aki and started to admire her work as a gardener,</p><p>“ Wow! you cleaned up the garden nicely.. I thought you were going to leave in the morning?”</p><p>She gave a smirk “ Well, I did need a break from show business. So it wouldn’t hurt if I stepped away for a day .. or maybe even two.”</p><p>Yusei gave a sigh, “If that’s what you want, I’ll do what I can to make sure you’re safe in the meantime..” Yusei start to walk around the garden and started heading towards the woods “I’m going for a walk.. Care to join me?”</p><p>Aki nodded and wrapped her arm around his so they wouldn’t get separated. He normally doesn’t carry a parasol with him but since it’s mid morning, he doesn’t want to risk being burned. Through the thick fog, their words cut through to forge a steady bond of friendship. She trusted Divine, but she couldn’t trust him the way she could with Yusei. Yusei had a sense of authenticity that Divine never had, even she knew that he was always calculating for something, whatever it was she didn’t know. She still had many questions about Yusei, but she didn’t know how to talk to him about it. The glowing marks would have to be for later.. She wanted to know more about him.</p><p>As the fog became thinner they still were on a path forged by nature. In the sunlight she could see the long scar down his cheek. “Say.. Yusei, how did you get.. y’know..” She pointed to his cheek and to his chest, clearly implying about the scars. He pointed to his cheek with his gloved hand,</p><p>“Oh this? It’s not a huge story-“</p><p>“ Tell me. I want to get to know you. “ He paused for a minute, she continued on trying to piece her words together as if she was sewing them together, “ I want to know the pain you’ve felt, because clearly you’ve been through some.” He gave a soft smirk, he pointed to his chest, as that scar was easy to tell a lie about, </p><p>“This… was from a fencing accident-“</p><p>“You do fencing? I honestly didn’t think you were the type to fence.”</p><p>“ Well, I haven’t done it in a while, sharp metals aren’t forgiving on skin. Well at least on my dainty skin.”</p><p>She rolled her eyes and gave a small giggle before pointing to the scar on his left cheek.</p><p>“ What about that scar?” His warm tone faded away, as the silence between them grew.</p><p>“ ..Are you sure?”</p><p>“Yes” She gripped his arm harder as trying to insert faith into his veins. He felt the tension release in his jaw as he gave in to her request.</p><p>He could feel himself walk into the past, as if he were stepping into a living diary that he dusted off, waiting to read the horrors that awaited him. It was very vivid in his mind.</p><p>It was true that he came from a wealthy family and ended up desiring some of the finer objects in life. His family as a unit kept away in the deep forests outside of Neo Domino. In a way it was the beginning of the downfall of the Fudo family. His father, an aristocrat; a mastermind of the sciences, projecting the longevity of mankind. His mother was quite sickly, he always did find it odd that she was constantly pale and looked like death was about to take her, but could still go for long walks with his father. Despite this she always encouraged him to take things apart and put them back together. To be adventurous when she couldn’t. His father worked tirelessly day and night to find a cure for her illness.</p><p>It unfortunately started to take a toll. </p><p>As time passed into Yusei’s teen years, his father left yusei alone more and more frequently. It could be days at a time sometimes to months, but every time he could see his father; the soul was draining out of him almost to a pale shriveled excuse of a person. There were rumors that his father was involved with a project that could allow for humans to achieve immortality. Many were against this project as many results resulted in mutilations of corpses and unnecessary killings. He couldn’t remember the last time his father didn’t come back home or leave the basement without smelling the scent of blood or rotting corpses. Sometimes he’d catch half slaughtered bloodied pigs across the marble floors screeching in pain as his father dragged it down to the basement, likely to be slaughtered in an experiment. Yusei normally helped the servants who had to clean up the livers and other organs left across the floor. But it would later expand to other human corpses as well.</p><p>The longer time had gone on, Yusei could no longer recognize his father, as he was pasty as death was inhabiting body except.. his teeth had become explicitly sharper his eyes were the same color but they no longer had a feeling of warmth to them. There were legends that vampires would roam the forests at night, but they were only legends and myths. Except the story was right in front of him, his mother was no exception.</p><p>He wasn’t sure when his father became like this or how long his mother had been like this. But all he knew was that she too had the same look in her eyes, and similar features reflected his father’s, for the most part they were able to keep each other in check, preventing each other from attacking their only son. Yusei knew it was a matter of time before he needed to escape, he was old enough to know that he couldn’t trust pure strangers. Although one person had caught wind of two new situated vampires and stormed the mansion. Yusei’s father fought to the very end to protect his family, but alas died at the hands of the silver knives that impaled his cold chest, with the blood to stain his clothes. Flames and smoke blurred the his vision as the shrieks of horror echoed through the night, and made a mess of his home. Yusei, was able to make it out to be a little banged up. He hit a mirror that he didn’t see and big shard stuck out of his left cheek. He was able to pull it out once he had escaped. Before running  away to hideout in the forest, but it was not going to be enough. Through his wandering he ended up in the satellite work district stealing food to survive. Martha came to his aid, claiming responsibility for him before he could be punished for stealing when he was caught by security. She didn’t have any legal records for him, but that didn’t mean she was going to abandon him.</p><p>Of course he left <em>certain details</em> out, before he was cut on his cheek. His mother, had lunged from behind and clamped her sharp fangs into his neck, leaving two parallel circles on his neck, though strangely that scar had faded quicker than the rest of his scars. He had to kill his beloved mother before she could return to her senses.</p><p>A silver dagger he kept by his side, he had to unsheath, with tears clouding his vision he had to do what he needed to do and put her out of her misery. He stayed beside her as she had returned to normal in her last few breaths, begging him to not blame himself or his father for what happened. He couldn’t process what he had did. Waiting for the sun to rise in the groves he wept. Wept that he had murdered his own, he was no better than the man who barged in and uprooted his life. It was a fact that he was an enemy and couldn’t live in the secured house any longer. He did venture from town to town, he had to start lying about his age as his reflection was visibly gone, and he was aging slowly now with more permanent physique of a lanky 19 year old. He wasn’t sure if he’s killed any one else, as his memory would be shut away temporarily. Crow always assured him that Yusei didn’t lay a finger on anyone, but he couldn’t figure out why his memory would blank out.</p><p>He could feel the pain in his cool body throb in pain from his hidden emotions. Aki could send something was off but she didn’t want to push him any further. She placed both of her hands on his and squeezed them, trying to help ease the pain she had brought to him from his soul. She halted her footsteps and brushed his cheek.</p><p>“ I, I had no idea.. I’m so sorry that you had to endure that Yusei..” She brought his gloved hands to her face and kissed his gloved hands</p><p>“ I know that it wasn’t ladylike, but it’s what I’ve to do when I’m alone and in pain.”</p><p><em> God I can’t believe I actually did that, I hope he doesn’t see that as weird or anything.</em> He gave a soft smile as he let her grip release, and as he did he reached to his left leg and pulled out a sheathed dagger in a thigh holster. He placed it in her hands and rolled them. “I want you to keep this-“ She was confused.</p><p>“But why? I have no reason to be afraid of you. You’ve treated me with kindness since we first met."</p><p> He broke away from her gaze, feeling the guilt and shame that was building up in him.</p><p>“ In case I ever.. Go berserk- I’m allergic to silver and this would basically kill me if you stab me in the chest-“</p><p>She gave a glance, pieces were aligning a bit but it didn't quite make sense to just <em>assume</em> that he was a vampire.. could she? But yet again, the unnatural was the normal she grew up with. </p><p>“ Yusei. You keep forgetting that I am apart of a circus that profits off of “unnatural” abilities, and general mutations. Other circuses like the one I’m in has the “freaks” and “ bizarre” of the world. Tattooed women head-to-toe, dangerous stunts, powers that allow me to materialize real monsters for a show without special effects.” She put her hands on his shoulders.</p><p>“ I’m sure whatever <em>secret</em> you have that you’re holding, I can handle.-“ She released her grip and broke his gaze. “ -Normally, I wouldn’t trust strangers I just met but clearly this-“ She pulled up her sleeve to reveal her mark.</p><p>“This bonded us together. I’ve heard stories on this mark, but I don’t know much about it. Divine had told me that it’s a source of my power. My parents saw this as a birthmark, that would fade in and out. Some see this as a blessing and others a <em>curse.</em>”</p><p>She felt a tinge of anger leave her mouth on the last few words. He wanted her to understand, that his secret wasn’t anything normal. He was a cursed being in a different way that she was. He gave a sharp sigh, it just wasn't easy to explain. He couldn't <em>just</em> trust anyone now.  He's been extremely lucky that Crow hasn't double crossed him from the years he's known him.</p><p>It was something he was going to reveal another day. </p><p>" Please yusei. You can tell me.. I know you are hiding something." Her earth eyes pierced straight into him, reflecting against his water ones. </p><p>He swung his head back, not ready to reveal his secret just yet. </p><p>"Maybe another time.. alright?" She relunctantly nodded, giving up on her hopes of information for the night. </p><p>“ Shall we go back? It’s about time we figure out what these marks on our arms mean.”</p><p>She nodded and nervously took his arm to lead back into the thick fog. To break the silence he started to dive into his heart and find happier memories that he would be able to share to lighten up the somber mood. She listened intently to how him and Crow first met.. By playing pranks on each other. Living in the orphanage Yusei wasn’t really isolated until he showed his teeth. Martha knew there was something special about him, she knew that he was a vampire. He had some classic signs as he was allergic to silver and his reflection was never shown in mirrors. She never pointed that out as fear was a strong captivator to hate. But he also had a strange mark that would come and go from time to time, most would brush it off as him being a freak of nature since he was not human.</p><p>Despite how well behaved he was, she kept him off limits to potential parents who could afford to adopt children. Crow was also off limits, as the two of them got along well together and with Crow gone Yusei would likely collapse under his frail support system. It also helped that Crow just wanted to help the younger children adjust to their new lives. He’d always tell supernatural stories about the werewolves and other supernatural creatures that lived in Neo Domino. As he got older its’ where he got his inspiration to research out in the forests.</p><p>He only studied vampires and became a hunter to kill those who were harming the innocent if it came down to it. Yusei was always last on his list to make it appear that he was ruthless. Yusei would normally tag along to see the world how Crow sees it, hoping that it would help him learn more about himself. She wasn’t sure why he was opening up to her much more easily. She was enjoying his happier stories, it seemed that his body was no longer in pain. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed but they had reached the cleaned up garden.. With the background of loud banging of iron and wood.</p><p>As the two headed back inside a “FUCKING HELL” echoed through the windows and the house, he probably hit himself with a hammer or something. But the only thing that was obscure was that the twins were screaming. Yusei and Aki both looked at each other in concern before separating and searching for Crow. Yusei slid down the oak banister down into the darkness of the basement, while started to search the upper floors. Yusei had lit a kerosene lamp to venture further into the dark. He called out a few times before searching a bit in the basement. Between the troves of books, Crow was nowhere to be seen.</p><p>Although a few books did catch his bright blue eyes, but he couldn’t worry about that now. He had to find Crow. He reluctantly ascended the steps, before he heard a faint shout coming from the upper floors. He bolted up the steps, and briefly stop in the hall to try and find the screams. He didn’t have to listen as he could see a bright red light burning from one of the rooms further down. He slammed open the door to find Crow gripping his arm and Aki looking away from hers. It didn’t take long for Yusei’s arm to start glowing either. The twins stood there wide eyed as they didn’t know what was going on. As the light started to fade, time started to move again. Crow was clearly panicked as there was now this strange tattoo on his arm that he either did not notice before fading in and out or it had always been there, he just never noticed.</p><p>“ What the hell is this?” Yusei knew that Crow wouldn’t accept I don’t know as an answer but he really didn't know.</p><p>“ Well, this mark is binding us together.. Maybe we can check out some of your journals for answers.”</p><p>Aki was confused, as her mark was the source of her power.. But at the same time Crow didn’t have any powers.</p><p>
  <em>Why does he have that mark when.. He’s a normal human?</em>
</p><p>Something in Yusei’s mind clicked, “ The books.. Maybe the books have some answers.”</p><p>Everyone else in the room stared at him like he grew another counterpart from thin air.</p><p>“ Oi yus.. Care to explain?”</p><p>“Y’know how there’s a bunch of books in the basement? There’s a few that might be able to give us some answers.” It didn’t take long for Yusei to let his mind checkout and his body run on adrenaline through the parlor and into the darkness of the basement below.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>More of the violence and gore will be coming in the next chapters! It's slow but I'll be getting there I promise!</p><p>12-29-2020 Yes I'm changing some circumstances as I feel there are some chapters that just have unequal pacing and I'm trying to fix it so it feels more even.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Searching for an answer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The gang search for an answer on their marks, but what will happen to Misty?</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It's more tame this chapter, but there's more coming..</p><p>I am not associated or part of the Yugioh franchise.</p><p>Please read and review!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Misty thanked Carly and ‘the phantom’ for letting her stay the night before leaving in the early morning. She was able to make it back before most of camp and more importantly, Divine was up, but Aki was still nowhere to be seen. She could feel her body heave as the panic and fear had set in. She knew Divine was not going to give her mercy on Aki’s “vacation”, no matter which way she spun. She had snuck back into her tent, trying not to disturb the others before pretending to stretch in case Divine came in early to wake the performers up. Although she was relieved to see that Toby was safe and not had any harm come to him. She noticed that her canteen of water was empty  and she would need to refill it before practice. AS she left her tent she smacked right into the person she did not want to see this early. She was stunned and asked what Divine was doing up early.</p><p>“Well, I felt… I needed to clarify my.. anger to Aki. I’m sure she’d understand.” Fire alarm bells rang in her head. As Divine started to push Misty aside, Misty jumped in his way to block him.</p><p>“No! I-uh She.. She’ went out for a walk around the grounds. She was really upset last night..”</p><p>Her cover was weak, but she could at least buy a few hours for her. Divine raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”</p><p>“ Yes, I imagine she’ll be out for a few hours. She was very upset last night and we had gone out on a walk last night.And… And she insisted on going out to clear her head again.” Misty had her shoulders pushed back to give a confidence stance. Divine rolled his eyes and gave a smirk.</p><p>“Alright, fine then. But she better not be late for practice. ”</p><p>Misty frantically nodded, she felt that exchange went over easy.. too easy. The anxiety flared through her veins as she couldn’t fathom what punishment would be in store for her.. No. For Aki. She realized that in lying for her, she put her in the crossfire as a human shield. Misty was safe, but Aki was most certainly not. And it was all her fault. The fact that Divine let his most guarded performer go, with a smile, was foreboding in itself. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but she had to do something. As the sun was rising time was starting run short before practice. She started to ask the other performers if they had even seen Aki around, when all her answers were striking out she had to leave to start searching for her. As she snuck out from the beginning of practice the hand on her shoulder was a comforting one. She slowly turned around to see Toby, he gave a comforting smile.</p><p>“Misty, I’m sure Miss Aki can take care of herself. She is one of the strongest performers we have.” Misty was confused, as she explicitly remember not stating anything to Toby about the exchange.</p><p>“How did you-“</p><p>“ I overheard from some of the other performers that were gossiping about her. Some said that Divine was going to look for her  with a few other security members from camp or something like that.”</p><p>Her heart started to race a marathon. <em>This was not good.</em></p><p>She shook her head no, but she couldn’t afford to make Toby worry or put him into harm’s way. Misty gave a fake smile, she wanted to believe that she would be okay. But she knew deep down that Divine would not let this one slide. She was a money maker to him, and a punishment show could either bring in a huge audience or leave it empty. She could’t leave practice now, but it was evident that Divine was not in the main show tent for the upcoming performance implied that he had gone looking for Aki. Divine had briskly walked to Aki’s private tent to see if she had returned, alas it was empty. Based on the knowledge Misty had given Aki was in that forest, likely alone and with a performance disk. That didn’t matter to him, all he cared about was that his income he pulled from a contract was now running away, or dead. It infuriated him that <em>she</em> of all people ran off with a performance coming up, onto of that Misty covered for her! He didn’t have any sort of lead, it was evident that Misty was going to cover for Aki. Misty’s contract was ending after this season and was not planning on renewing it, as apart of her of agreement Toby would be leaving with her once her contract expired as he was not of legal age. It didn’t make sense for Misty to let Aki run off since after all, they barely knew each other.. From at least of what he knew.</p><p>
  <em>Since I don’t have any leads, I can at least start with the immediate radius.</em>
</p><p>He walked back to his tent and started to rummage through a few of his things, mainly his dueling disk prototype, a cross, a canteen of water, and a jar of wolfsbane. He couldn’t take his car with him so he had to settle with setting out on foot as the horses that mainly pulled the wagons of equipment were already taken. <em>It looks like I’m going to have a punishment performance this show.. and a guest star.</em></p><p>He started plotting what horrors that he was going to have, he may have trained his performers to not look in fear in the eyes of danger; punishment shows were not a one on one base. They brought in tons of money as there were no practices before each punishment performance for the one being punished, it brought an authenticity of fear. If anyone was injured during the show, the excuse was that it was on the performer for missing their cue to ‘move out of the way’ of the flying bullet. Usually when funds were extremely low that week, someone selected at random was going to be punished. Most of the time it was a child that didn’t meet Divine’s expectations, other times it was adults who missed practices or violated their contract. Some have had a mysterious disappearances after the performance was over, but just telling the media that they had left due to “creative differences” or not denying their existence seemed to be enough for them. His corruption was minor comparative to the politicians running the growing city. He had searched down the path that led him to a river. He gave an irritated sigh as she was nowhere to be seen.</p><p>
  <em>She’s not dumb enough to die, she would at the very least take something to protect herself with.</em>
</p><p>At midday and with nothing to show for it, he had to stop looking for her for today. He had a practice session to run. Even if she did run away, she wouldn’t be able to live in Heartland without her being returned to Neo Domino. But boy was he <em>pissed.</em></p><p> Yusei slid down into the darkness of the basement in the house, and started to rummage through the books. There was one specifically to occult mysteries and a few other myths. The others caught up to him digging through the books like a feral animal hunting for fresh meat. He had a stack of books that might be useful, Crow hopped down the steps to collect the books Yusei had put out. Many of the books were in Latin and Yusei only knew a little bit were Crow took more time to study it. The twins started to look through the books too, but primarily through more private possessions that belonged to their parents. They took a seat floating in the air, as sitting on the floor would be pointless. Might as well be comfortable if they were going to go through books. So far it was a lot of keepsake items, and a couple of sepia photographs.</p><p>“Ruka?.. Do you think we’ll ever get our bodies back?” Ruka tried to stay positive, she didn’t know for sure as some time had passed. Even she wasn’t certain if they would ever get their bodies back.</p><p>“ I think so.. It may have been sometime since we’ve been trapped but look around. Crow has been doing research for us, Miss Aki has first hand experience with magic, and Yusei wants to help us out as much as he can.”</p><p>She floated over to her brother and gave him a smile, “And even if we don’t get our bodies back, we still have friends that we can count on!”</p><p>Aki took in the sight of everyone rummaging through the books, she stood there for a silent moment before jumping on down into the dimly lit room to help. She started to work in the far corner clearing out the cobwebs and other dust below. She did find some water damaged books, after flipping through a few she found one on the inside with “AM board exp” scribbled inside. She wanted to bring the attention to the others before stopping herself. She wanted to know what Divine had been doing with this board and why he was developing it. The first couple of pages were badly damaged from what be water and some other fluids she wasn’t.. entirely sure what it was.  But still kept on reading into what would be pages of odd amenities.</p><p>
  <em> The board Rua and Ruka are trapped in, is it the same as my board?</em>
</p><p>She turned to a breakdown of the other board, describing what it was. There was another piece to it, a pick like accessory and letters engraved across it, with card like slots on her board. She kept on flipping through the pages, studying the words as they came across. Yusei and Crow had been collaborating with their books. They had found one relating to the marks on their arms. Rua and Ruka got distracted and started to delve into their childhoods before their bodies disappeared. One line caught her eye, <em>board .. meant for soul capture?.. magic users can use? Psychic users? Releasure still in development. Some mutilated and conjoined.. others not..</em> she hesitated  and felt her body go into a cold sweat. She wasn’t sure if the board was meant for advanced military equipment, but she damn well knew that it wasn’t meant for performances. But she kept on reading, there was some latin and the last few pages were missing. One thing she knew for sure is he absolutely can not get ahold of this. As a performer, she needed to go back.</p><p><em>I can’t go back, I’m practically home free to start a new life with them..but if I don’t I’m endangering the twins, and mostly Yusei..</em> <em>There’s absolutely not a doubt in my mind that Divine would try to rope him in and profit off of him. I’m already having a hell of a time leaving. There’s no doubt that he would</em>- her thoughts were interrupted as she returned to reality by Yusei’s voice and she shut her book a little too quickly.</p><p>“-are you okay? “</p><p>Yusei had furrowed his brows in concern for the performer. She felt her hands twinge in the chill of the room.</p><p>“ Ah-um yes. I’m-i’m fine. I , got lost in thought. “ She mustered up a smile to help convince yusei and the orange haired hunter in the room. She quickly changed the subject to focus on the mark on their arms.</p><p>“ Have you found anything on about our marks on our arms?” Crow got a bit excited, as a man of legends it was one of the more enjoyable passages to him.</p><p>“ Okay so me and yus' found QUITE a bit in the basement on the crimson dragon.” He proceeded to go into details in the legend and analyze every detail into multiple theories on the on it. “The only confirmation that we was able to find is that those who have the mark can feel physical pain if they are ‘connected’ to each other, and that degree of pain can vary. “</p><p>Crow grabbed a wooden crate and took out a dusty faded croquet mallet. He then hit Yusei on the shoulder with it hard. “DAMNIT- CROW? WHAT THE HELL?!”</p><p>Crow held his arm a bit in pain, and Aki held hers.</p><p>“ Well at least we know that part of the legend is true!”</p><p>Yusei glared before giving him an uppercut in retaliation. Aki gave a sigh, it felt like she was on the sidelines waiting for her cue to go under the lights, by watching these two clowns fight. She gathered herself and took the book in hand. She felt a bit nauseated from what she read, but it may have been she was in overload of processing. She needed to go back before Divine started to really hunt her down. Going a full day was risky in itself, going two days was going to warrant a search. Besides she had a performance coming up soon. She had to go whether she wanted too or not. Yusei could sense something was off, she looked cold? It wasn’t the best way to describe it. But she certainly wasn’t open, her mind was clearly elsewhere.</p><p>Regardless he took off his cape and offered it to her. She accepted it only because she was cold so she claims. It was warmer, likely velvet or wool she wasn’t entirely sure. She headed upstairs wrapping herself in the warmth of the cloak and taking in his scent<em>. It might break them if they knew that they may never get their bodies back.. But it’s an answer they need to know about at some point. </em> She didn’t realize how much had time had passed as the sun was setting. She took the book upstairs and changed into her borrowed evening clothes. She felt the trapped emotions flood out of her as the heat of sadness flared up into her eyes and felt it drip out running a race down her face.<em> I don’t want to go back. I can’t stay here either.. Is there anything I can do?</em> Hopelessness settled in as she thought about the situation as her cries got louder. Crow had heard her crying as he climbed up the stairs and felt bad for not answering her cries. He can work with children, but he’s not great about working with upset women. That was something Yusei had that he didn’t have. He turned around and silent called for Yusei from the kitchen, and took over as Yusei headed upstairs.</p><p>He gave a gentle knock at the door, “ Aki? Can I come in?”</p><p>He waited for a few minutes before a faint “yes” answered him back. He clicked the door opened and closed the door behind him before sitting next to her to figure out what was wrong. He sat on the bed and kicked off his boots before sitting on to of the covers to get to the bottom of this. He extended his arms to offer a hug to her as a means of comfort, and she gracefully accepted between her sobs. He let his voice drop to a lower and softer tone, closer to lower octave wind chimes blowing through a breeze. He embraced her as she was crying, his heart may not have a pulse but his warmth brought her a gentle comfort. Thus soon enough her head was buried in his chest as she was coming to terms with reality.</p><p>“Yusei.. I-I don’t want to leave you. I don’t want to leave you, the twins, and-and even crow. But-“</p><p>“ Then don’t go back.”  His answer brought her off guard. Theoretically that was true, but in reality she couldn’t. She gazed into his eyes in confusion before looking away.</p><p>“ You don’t understand, I-I have to go back, if I don’t I-I’d be putting you, and-“</p><p>“ You don’t have to worry about me. I’m capable of taking care of myself. Crow is capable.. most days. The twins will be fine. They’ve got Crow and myself for company at the very least-“</p><p>“I know. But yusei, if I don’t go back, there’s no telling what.. he’d do if I was gone longer than  a day. I mean- I don’t even know what he’ll do to me because I ran off without his permission and I-“</p><p>Yusei kept silent, but felt anger start to grow inside of him. She shouldn’t have to live in fear because she desperately wanted a day off..He then guided her face back to lock his gaze and was wiping away her tears.</p><p>“Aki. Listen to me. You don’t have to leave, but if you must I will come visit you. And I’ll bring Crow along.”</p><p>“But-“</p><p>“ We can visit late at night. Where no one is up. And we’ll be gone long before he’s up. If you are in a true circus it should not be that hard to find.”</p><p>Aki felt herself start to calm but the anxiety was eating her alive without mercy. She felt comfort in his presence, but she couldn’t shake the fear in her. Yusei held her close, he felt helpless that he couldn’t really change her situation or offer a better alternative. He ended up resting his chin in her hair. He let his grip loosen, but hers tightened. His back was started to get stiff so he guided her down as he felt his spine crack a little as his shoulders started to relax. She hated giving her emotions out, to her it was juggling too many bottle as the audience would yell for messing up one detail. She was never punished, even though others were. It was something she couldn’t focus on.</p><p><em>I need to sleep if.. if I want to make ..it early.. in the.. morning…</em> Her eyelids came to a heavy close as the energy drained from her.</p><p>He took in the sight of her.  He wasn’t sure if he was ever going to see her again. Based on what he knows of this “Divine” figure, he wasn’t going to treat her well when she came back, if anything he’d choke her more of distance. It was amazing that she was able to get away in the first place. The law wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.</p><p>
  <em>I’m going to have to talk to Sherry.. about her hiding in the Outskirts for a bit. I’ve got a bad feeling about letting her go with.. him. </em>
</p><p>He let his eyes shut as the moon was high in the night. Her eyes fluttered open as the bright sun hit her face. As her vision started to correct and come into focus, she started to blush as Yusei was still asleep. His hair was a little messy, but it was strangely.. attractive.. She felt her face warm up, and she hesitantly kissed  his forehead. As she rolled over to get up, the realization kicked in. It was too late. She was going to have to miss another practice. Based on the shadows on one of the outside decorations on the same level, it was directly under itself.</p><p>
  <em>Fuck… it’s noon. I can’t go back with Yusei now.. Divine will know something’s up.</em>
</p><p>She took a glance back at him, smiling as he was sleeping soundly.<em> Well.. I can at least get my things together and just leave once the sun goes down..</em></p><p>Divine didn’t waste any time on calling Misty into his office after the next practice session. Misty hesitated as she headed to Divine’s office, In this moment she could break her contract and take toby to possibly live with the duo she met in the woods the other night. But her feet were not listening to her brain. As she brushed the cloth aside, to enter, a chill in the air filled the room.</p><p>He. Was. Pissed. Understandably so, as he lost his primary money maker. Aki was scheduled to perform tomorrow. Her anxiety was rising as his fingers were impatiently tapping his wooden desk. <em>What to do… what to do!</em></p><p>“Y..You called me in sir?” She bit her lip as she slowly walked in. He slowly turned to her as he gave a .. smile. She knew she was in trouble.</p><p>“Yes!.. I did. I’m sure you could tell me why Miss Aki, has been gone coming on for missing two whole practices.. ”</p><p>Misty took a breath as she tried to hide her fear to clear her mind.</p><p>“Well.. maybe she got lost! I meant-“</p><p>He slammed his hand on the desk startling her, before he got up from his chair and leaning into her face, seething with anger.</p><p>“ Do <em>you</em> realize that with her gone.. We have a<em> very little</em> chance of bringing in an audience this next performance? <em>She</em> brings in the audience. Who gives<em> us</em> money, so<em> I</em> can pay <em>you</em>.” Misty sat silent, as she was too afraid to move. He gave a sigh and sat back down., as he did he took out a bottle of scotch and flicked the top off before chugging the bottle. He slammed the bottle back down on the table before taking the contract out.</p><p>“Well. Since we are in the middle of nowhere I can give you a choice: finish your final performance and have your contract terminate afterwards or wait until the end of the contract season before leaving. It’s your  fucking choice. “</p><p>Misty was stunned, but she would need to think it out.</p><p>“ Bu-“</p><p>“Oh don’t worry about your dear little brother, he’d be leaving with you too.” He gave a glancing smile, that was way too happy to be just an innocent smile at first glance. </p><p><em>In a way you won’t quite expect.</em> “ I’m giving you until the final performance this weekend. To make your choice.”</p><p>Misty let her breath out, and gave a nod. She smiled and thanked Divine. He led her out the tent and started to get a sword out out from one of the cabinets.</p><p>Through the day, Aki had left some notes for crow to read on the board that the twins were trapped in. She wanted to take the board and book with her to get an answer from Divine but even she knew that would end up biting her in the ass at some point. With her clothes repaired, she slipped into those. She had spent some more time with Yusei, she was getting to know him but she did want to start to get to know him on an intimate level. Mainly with little things, like reaching for his hand “accidentally” and asking for his cloak through the day. She knew she couldn’t keep his cloak and when the season ended she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to talk with him again. Or ever.</p><p>As the sun was setting she had her things ready to go. She bade her farewell to the twins, Yusei wanted to take one long final walk with her before he had to let her go.. For now. As the lamps started to become lit for evening practices, in one of the side tents Divine had wandered in. Of course he knew that Toby meant quite a bit to Misty, so he knew a punishment show wouldn’t phase her. When Toby had finished his stunt, he was able to catch two of the three pins he had been practicing with. Divine gave an applause of approval before approaching him. Toby was startled as Divine was an idol to him.</p><p>“ Say Toby.. That was a pretty good catch you had back there.. But maybe we should try.. something different”</p><p>Toby held his breath in amazement and gave a smile.</p><p>“ Y-you mean I’m going to be able to try to lift  heavier objects?” Divine cocked his head in a bit of disgust and slight confusion and played along. “Well no.. I meant something a little more…Important than that.” Divine then pulled out what appeared to be a saber or rapier of the sort and held it with both hands.</p><p>“ What I meant was.. Sword swallowing.”  </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Waltzing in the Moon's Desire</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A heartwarming moment in the woods before her departure into the sheer horrors that await her in the morning.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I completely forgot, but a huge thank you to PoetryMagic12 for pitching ideas to me a bit back in the comments!<br/>I thought I credited them a chapter or two back and I completely missed it!<br/>-----<br/>I do not own or am associated with the yugioh franchise.</p><p>Please read and review.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The evening sun surrendered itself to the rising moon. The duo had stayed pretty close to the forest. Aki had her performance disk activated in hand. There was much more she wanted to know about her disk and the one the twins were trapped in. Crow wanted her to stay so he could do more research on the disks and possibly take them apart. Tampering with magical objects was not her speciality, she didn’t want to risk the object exploding or something even worse happening. Divine was a crafty person when it comes to tech that he develops singlehandedly. The equipment that has anti-piracy was always a roulette spin.</p>
<p>Yusei had his lantern freshly lit, with the scent of kerosene filling the air. She held his gloved hand, the wind had picked up a bit and her cool down clothes weren’t exactly the warmest; they were meant for after cooling down after being in an enclosed area for hours on end. Not exactly for traveling into the woods. Yusei wanted to make a quick stop in The Outskirts before he led her back to where she needed to be before the morning.</p>
<p>“For supplies” he had claimed, when in reality he wanted to ask Sherry to provide cover for Aki. He knew that she’d understand, she was always ready to help out women in need and ready to defend for them at a moment’s notice. Neo Domino and Heartland have progressive views in the cities but it wasn’t enough to help women in abusive situations. They had long ways to go before women could be truly equal in their cities. <em>I know she doesn’t like me waking her in the middle of the night.. But Aki needs help to escape the horrors she’s in. She deals herself out of a corner where Crow and I know how to fight with physical violence</em>. For once she wasn’t overly stressed with the need to reach perfection so she let her mind wander a bit.. She never realized how much she had missed dancing, and some of the mannerisms while she lived at home. She didn’t necessarily miss<em> all</em> of them, there were a few that she missed dearly.</p>
<p>“Yusei.. Do.. Do you know how to dance?” The raven haired vampire glanced back as he slowed down. “Uh.. it depends on what dance it is. I can do ballroom dancing. I honestly can’t keep a steady pace in Ragtime, I believe it’s called?” Aki nodded, a lot of the other performers would have a post performance party if the show did well that weekend. There were a few musicians that Divine did employ but that was mainly if they had any special abilities. She started to slow down to a near stop, her mind started to short circuit as finding the words started to become difficult again.</p>
<p>“Well.. Then uh, could, could we stop for a moment, and.. and” Yusei gave a smile of what she was asking of him.</p>
<p>“ If you’re asking me to dance, I’d be happy to have a dance with you. Although at this rate, you’ll be more of a man than I’ll ever be.” He gave a chuckle at his own joke as she giggled. He continued down the winding path keeping her close.</p>
<p>“ There should be a clearing up ahead.”</p>
<p>It took a bit before the path became wider, before the duo ventured through high grass to the middle of a clearing of flowers. Aki used her power to manipulate the plants to move them off to the side. She’d feel terrible if she danced on them. Yusei led her out to the middle of the clearing with the moon filling the space with soft light. He placed his kerosene lamp on a rock close by. He wasn’t too worried about the lamp burning too quickly, and besides it would give him a chance to spend time with her. He gave a bow as she curtsied, they both strides to each other. She placed her hand on his broad shoulder as he placed his palm in the curve of her spine as they both intertwined their opposing hands that met at the sides.</p>
<p>“ Since we don’t have music.. I’ll count us off.” She softly spoke before giving a “1,2,3”</p>
<p>He took his step forward as she took hers backwards, almost off into another world of nostalgia she longed for.</p>
<p>“1,2,3”</p>
<p>His memories came back to him, while he never cared to be at parties it was something that was ingrained to him as a child. The women would always compliment how he presented himself, of all the women he met he never wished to court them. He knew many just wanted his hand for status and to inherit his wealth. But with her, it was different. He wanted to know her, not just on a friendly level, but on an intellectual, and maybe.. no.. not yet. For all he knows this could be an illusion to get his guard down.</p>
<p>“1,2,3”</p>
<p>But her silky voice was a siren he couldn’t ignore. He wanted to keep looking into her honey brown eyes, it shone a different way in the moon’s light. He could see something in her eyes. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it infected him with a sense of positivity. As cloth twirled along the earth floor he started to feel warmth in his body as she pressed against him while following his steps. They kept pretty good time as the crickets chirped. Somewhere along the way Aki stopped keeping the beat as she brought his body closer. They lost count of the steps and how many they had taken, but somewhere along the way they both slowed down to a stop as they held each other and took in their scents. As Aki broke away, she got on her tip toes and kissed his cheek. Yusei felt his face heat up faster than a wildfire, as that was something he was not expecting out of this. She gave a cute smile as she realized what she’d done as she looked away as the heat was rising in her cheeks.</p>
<p>“I- uh, hmm. I shouldn’t’ve done that.. That was rude of me-“ He raised a hand to cut her off.</p>
<p>“No. That’s quite alright-“ He then placed his thumb under her chin to redirect her gaze back to him.</p>
<p>“ If you don’t mind, I want to be just as rude back.”</p>
<p>Aki was entranced with his blue eyes, she knew he didn’t cast a spell on her but her heart started to race as she closed her eyes to lean into him.</p>
<p>This was something she wanted.</p>
<p>Yusei gave a smile as he started to lean in as well. Their lips had met under the moonlight. He hadn’t felt the warmth and passion embodied into one person. He wanted more. He could feel the desire build into him, that he was starting to lose himself in her taste. In silence and of grunts, they pulled away after a few minutes for a breath of air. They both gazed longingly as Yusei processed what just happened as they were taking in the air that they had lost in a few short minutes. It wasn’t for long as the cold wind started to pick up. They both came back to reality as the cold wind picked up and the latter started to flicker a little. He did have extra wick and oil for his lamp on him, but he couldn’t find any matches. He didn’t want to ruin the moment as it was, but time wasn’t going to wait for anyone.</p>
<p>“ C’mon.. we have to get to The Outskirts.”</p>
<p>Aki nodded, as she reveled in her magical moment. He didn’t taste like a cold soulless corpse, quite the opposite really. He was still cold, but she could still feel emanating warmth from the inside of him onto her flesh. With a flick of her wrist she returned the flowers and vegetation back into its rightful place.  As they headed back on the path, she was still wearing his cloak holding his hand, with her fingers intertwined with his. He gave an internal burst of joy of what happened to him within the last five minutes. He knew this was a moment he was going to revel in for a long while. Aki couldn’t stand the silence between them, she still wanted to know more about him. She felt that she was traversing through one of her previous tightrope acts, but without any safety nets and no crowd wishing her death. <em>That.. is for another time I suppose..</em> Instead she asked about more stories about him and crow as they haven’t grown up together. Yusei shook his head as he was exhausted about talking from his past. He instead pointed up to the stars and asked about the constellations.</p>
<p>“Again? I thought you had enough from looking through the curtain the other night.”</p>
<p>“The stars are always beautiful. I’ve never paid enough attention to them to chart them.. That would be something Crow would likely handle.”</p>
<p>“ Well.. if you’d like, I can teach you how to chart them sometime.”</p>
<p>“I’d like that.” It wasn’t long until the path wound to the tiny town of the Outskirts. There were a couple of large pipes sitting just outside of the village. She must’ve sealed that deal between Heartland or Neo Domino to use their water supplies.. He brought Aki close and put the hood of his cloak up over her head, he knew that’d she would be safe during the day, but with Sherry asleep there was no telling what the villagers thought of her or if she’d be recognized here. As the two made their way into the village, some gruff looking townspeople gave a glare at the two. Yusei glared back as Aki looked away from their glances, she knew that Divine would be looking for her. Sometimes she didn’t recognize them out of makeup or uniform for that matter, she was isolated most of the time. But if they had traditional Arcadia’s movement garb she could recognize them in an instant. Yusei gave a gentle knock at Sherry’s door.</p>
<p>No answer.</p>
<p>He gave another rapping against the cold oak, before he could hear muttering and swearing about the time.</p>
<p>
  <em> Kerclick!</em>
</p>
<p>The door opened as tired and irritated eyes gazed against his bright blue ones before she spoke.</p>
<p>“ You better have a good goddamned ex-“ Her eyes glanced over to the figure behind him. Aki kept silent as her eyes made contact with hers. She cut herself off as she gave a quick gesture to come in.</p>
<p>“Come in.” She opened the door wider before glancing down the street to make sure they weren’t being watched. Sherry was dressed in her nightgown with a rifle at her hip. Normally she carried a gun with her as self defense. She dealt with enough abusive relationships to know that abusers and drunkards don’t take “no “kindly. She defended wives with scared children and men who couldn’t defend themselves due to the stigma when their wives would beat them. She closed the door, and light one of her lamps. Aki sat down on the closest chair as Yusei went into the kitchen to grab some water. Sherry rubbed her eyes to wake herself up as she sat down at her desk, as Yusei walked back into the room.</p>
<p>“ Miss-are you in any danger?”</p>
<p>Aki gave a moment to think. It was a fact that Divine <em>did</em> slap her, but she didn’t feel that she was in immediate danger. Because well.. <em>He was overwhelmed and probably was drinking again. Besides it was only one time that he slapped her so.</em></p>
<p>“ Well.. I mean, I don’t think that I am. I did run off-” Sherry raised an eyebrow.</p>
<p>“ So.. you are in danger?”</p>
<p>“ Well-you see, it’s complicated. I think I overreacted from what he did-“ Sherry gripped her rifle, Yusei kept quiet but still was taking note.</p>
<p>“ What did he do?” Aki could feel the anger rise in the room. She didn’t want the woman she just met to go hunting after Divine, it would practically be suicide to do so. She got flustered and started to retrace her words to play them down.</p>
<p>“ Ah-um, it’s nothing! It really isn’t much I swear-“ She raised her hand to cut Aki off before turning to Yusei.</p>
<p>“ Yusei. Do you know?” Yusei glanced at Aki, he could sense her anxiety. <em>She's l</em><em>ikely afraid of ratting out Divine.</em> <em>When Sherry became defensive, she could be a force to be reconciled with.</em> She’s had a few sundown gunslinging contests in her time. Yusei rested his hand on Aki’s shoulder as a means for comfort. He gave a nod, as she did.</p>
<p>“ Divine.” Sherry had let her face go into a scowl.</p>
<p>“ I had to deal with him earlier on. I do <em>not</em> like his presence in my town. The bastard torn into my town like savage bandits. He had said that he was looking for someone, named ‘Aki.” Aki could feel her heart starting to race as her blood pressure started to plummet. <em>I knew I shouldn’t’ve stayed..</em> Yusei became concerned as he felt the tension rise in the room, he crouched down to her level to make eye contact with her.</p>
<p>“ Hey.. what’s going through your mind? “ She could feel the guilt swell up inside of her as her mind started to race. Who else did he hurt because I left ? Sherry started to put pieces together as this strange woman clearly has some sort of connection to Divine. She slowly stiffened her posture, as her expression became confused to concerned who was right before her.<em> Is this the woman Divine was looking for earlier?.. Either way she definitely fears him for one reason or another.. He did mention a woman with crimson colored hair..</em></p>
<p>“Hun.. Are you Aki, the one Divine is looking for?” She slowly nodded as her hands were shaking from anxiety.</p>
<p>“Who, who did h-he hurt?” Sherry got up from her desk and walked over to Aki, gently turning her to herself. She signaled Yusei to walk away a bit as it was likely that she wasn’t going to open up with him standing there if he was filled with rage. She held her hands and squeezed them to give a sense of touch to Aki. Yusei left the room, and headed into the kitchen. He primarily hung by the doorway in case Aki needed him.</p>
<p>“ He didn’t hurt anyone in my town. I made sure of that. You see the rifle against the wall” she gestured with her head, “ that rifle is mine. I make sure that no one gets hurt under my watch. I also have a range of volunteers who have the same belief that I do.”</p>
<p>Aki wasn’t sure to believe her, she knew Divine didn’t take well to others crossing him.</p>
<p>“ All he did was do some temporary damage, and ruffled some feathers before he left. I promise you that he didn’t lay a hand on anyone. Yusei can vouch for me.” Hearing his name he turned his attention away from the darkness and towards Aki. “ She’s right Aki. She defends this town like it’s last possession. She believes in the people here who want a better life. “</p>
<p>Aki could feel a little relief wash away within her, but the anxiety still lingered. There was no way she was able to stay out any longer than she could. Although.. It seemed a little too suspicious to her, considering how “prized” she was to Divine..<em> I would’ve thought he would’ve done more damage aside from busting doors open.. Is he going easy on me?</em></p>
<p>She could taste the dryness in her mouth, but wasn’t for long as she regained her balance in her mind. Sherry gave a smile, “ I’ll get you some water. Do you want to talk to Yusei?”</p>
<p>Aki slowly nodded, and Sherry looked up as she released her hands. Yusei quickly swapped places with sherry. He grabbed a chair and set it right infant of her before sitting down and holding her hands.</p>
<p>“ Talk to me. What’s going on in your mind?” Her attention subtlety shifts to the wooden floor below her. He could feel the tenseness within her hands. She couldn’t form a sentence as her questions kept overlapping in her mind. It took her a few moments to regain her composure in a quiet whisper,</p>
<p>“He must be plotting something. There’s no way he’d me off this easy. “ She couldn’t look him in the eye.</p>
<p>“ I-I just know something’s coming.” He didn’t know how to quite respond,<em> If he’s as wicked as she says, I have no doubt he’d do something. But I can’t lie to her either.</em> He intertwined his fingers around her sweaty palms and gently squeezed them to give her a sense of reassurance.</p>
<p>“ I can’t promise anything, but just know that I will not hesitate to retaliate against him if he harms you in any way.” He did his best to surprise his own anger, but tinges of it leaked in the latter end of his sentence. Aki jolted as the gentle clink of the glass met the desk beside her. Sherry stood silent, she hated the fear that was present in anyone’s eyes that did harm to the ones who are hurting. The only fear she wanted to see was when the abusers were finally paying the debt they racked up and justice was finally being served. Sherry strode back to her desk and kneeled to reach a lower cabinet.</p>
<p>“ Normally.. I’d let my home be a sanctuary for those who are being abused.. “ she started to pull out some documents onto her desk, along with a wax seal kit and some other legalities. Yusei turned his attention to Sherry, bracing himself to give an explanation. “ I can’t give sanctuary to Aki.. but I can give it to Adelia or Victoria. ‘Aki’ would have to find sanctuary elsewhere, for now.” Yusei gave a sigh of relief, before turning his attention back to Aki. Aki was still processing of what was happening as Sherry was filling out paperwork. “ I can keep your ‘reprinted’ birth certificates, and identification card for now. Is there an item that you keep on you at all times that I would be able to recognize you with? “ Aki started to think, <em>I keep my deck and my disk.. but it’s technically Divine’s.. isn’t it? I mean he gave it to me but would he take my deck from me?</em> She shook her head, “ No.. this deck is all I have, but it’s not mine.. All of my things were kept under lock and key due to the nature of the contract I’m in.” SHe then slid up the sleeve on her blouse to show a red mark that looked like an outline found on a cave wave. " But I do have this, I think Yusei has a mark similar to mine and ours glow." Sherry gave a sigh as that was the only thing really had to work with. </p>
<p> “  About your contract.. Did.. you read the contract before signing?” Aki’s scared expression turned into sadness, and away from her gaze.</p>
<p>“ I.. had no say in the matter. I was fairly young at the time when my parents signed me to his care. I won’t be able to break my contract until I’m 18. That is if he stops extending my contract and… gives up guardianship rights. “</p>
<p>Sherry let her eyebrows raise in expaseration before letting her jaw drop from disbelief before giving a defeated sigh. She has dealt with the senator in negation rights before. It made more sense of why he was engaging less and not grilling her as much in anger as he used too. There had been rumors that the senator and his wife were staying in separate residences but there wasn’t anything solid. But that was something for a later day, although it did give her a slight advantage in neogation talks as a last resort if she needed to. . As Aki was filling out the paperwork with Yusei helping her, she couldn’t help but smile. <em>God, they look like a newlywed couple signing for a house. I hope wherever she is staying, she gets out and soon..</em></p>
<p>When the sun had set in the woods, Jack couldn’t help but find himself staring out the window of the cottage. Carly was kind enough to let them coexist together for the time being. He was tired of living as a ghost, but how would anyone explain his reappearance? His reappearance from the afterlife would be a pain to fix. He had an identification card, but couldn’t find his birth certificates. Carly had approached him from behind and hugged him. He didn’t care that she hugged him, she was more tolerable than who he was engaged too.</p>
<p>“ jack.. What’s on your mind? “ He brought his right arm up, and revealed his mark. “ This. It started glowing a little before you had brought that woman over the other night.. I’m not sure if she had a connection with this.. But it hadn’t glowed like that since I had met Yusei..” Carly had thought for a moment, “ Maybe you need to find him again. Talk to him, he might have his mark fully formed by now. After all, your families were friends before …that incident.” Jack gave out a sigh. “Even if I did start to look for him, who knows where he could be. Let alone if he was alive.”</p>
<p>“ It’s still worth a shot y’know..” He couldn’t prove that she was wrong, but he proved himself that he was right either.<em> For all I know, he could be in that mansion or he could be dead by now.</em> He continued to stare out the window with the woman giving him a comforting hug from behind.</p>
<p>As the moon was high with the paperwork signed, Aki insisted on leaving into the night. She felt that she had been away for far too long and needed to return. With her cape up, hands intertwined with his, they were off. He did pick up some food for Crow and himself for the next few days. Her duel disk was activated in hand, as creatures were growling about. Luck was on their side as they wandered through the forest. She wasn’t sure if time had slowed or if it had sped, but regardless she didn’t want it to end. Her fear rose back up as the silhouette of tents became visible into the night. They were a little too close for visibility but he had insisted that he was safe from view. She grasped his hands and intertwined with his as her face started to heat up a bit. “Yusei.. I hope we can see each other again soon. I, I learned so much about you a-and I-um.” Should I say that? I’ve only known him for two days, and I- Her thoughts were interrupted as he spoke in a huskier voice.</p>
<p>“ I could say the same thing about you too. I hope that we can meet again soon. “ He let his fingers trace her jawline. Say.. Tomorrow night? After your performance?.” Aki nodded. She felt warm sparks flutter under her skin as he tipped her chin up. She closed her eyes and smiled as she started to lean in. It wasn’t real long that their lips had gently met before begging for another touch. They had entangled themselves with each other before Aki had pulled away, Yusei grabbed her arm, </p>
<p>“ Wait.. “ His eyes begged for her to stay with him, for her to run away to start anew with him. He wanted her to stay, to get to know her better. He then took a chain that had an emerald pendant that had a turtle setting on top of gold backing, adorned with a dainty gold chain. He brought her back to her and slipped it over her head. </p>
<p>“ It.. was my mother’s. I want you to have it. It suits you.” Aki started to protest but he cut her off with a kiss on the cheek. “ I mean it. I want you to have it.”</p>
<p> She smiled and thanked him before giving him one last quick kiss on his lips before parting ways. She ducked behind a bush before waving bye to him before making a run for it. He stayed there until her silhouette disappeared into the dark outlines of the horror show that awaited her. As he made his way back into the forest he let out sigh. He had mixed emotions, he was happy to find out who this mystery woman was, but he cursed himself for letting her go back to a show just waiting to tear her apart and willingly. He did feel helpless, he wants to help, but doesn’t know how. He pulled into his coat pocket and pulled out a card a little bit bigger than a business card with a dragon drawn onto it. If I could find a way to summon him.. then maybe I could have a fighting chance to make him keep his word or let her go early. Jailing him for humanities atrocities would be insane to do at this stage. Legalities and contracts weren’t exactly his speciality, Crow could do research but it was the sciences that he could muster through. Not law books. <em>I .. don’t even know if he’s still alive. The last I heard he had gone missing to avoid a marriage..</em> </p>
<p>He looked back to the path that he had walked with her. He had to make himself keep going, to his temporary home. An idea had struck him when his thoughts wandered about Crow’s journal. It’s unlikely, but maybe his journal is at my previous home. I know he used to do field studies there. It’s not too far from The Outskirts. She was able to sneak back into her tent as it was still untouched. She fell back onto her cot as she reveled in her memories of Yusei. She gently held the necklace and decided to wear it underneath her blouse. That way it wouldn’t get into the way of performing and Divine wouldn’t see it. He’s a psychic but he didn’t have x-ray vision. She felt her spine stiffen a bit as she sat back up and changed into her own pajamas again. While she was relieved that she was back at her home again, she couldn’t shut out the fact the home she had for years is not what she wants. That she has a way out if Misty is relieved early due to her actions. She let her heavy eyes shut as she started to dream into a world of being free.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A dance scene and a kiss scene in one? I've outdone myself.<br/>I have never done either a dance or kissing scenes so please let me know how I did!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Returning to Camp</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Where the real fun begins for Divine is where the nightmare sets in for Aki.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This took longer to write out since I have exams coming up. </p><p>Please read and review!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sun rose as her eyes fluttered open. It was a performance day as Divine’s booming voice could be heard throughout the field waking everyone up. She rolled out into the earth as she gathered her clothes she’d be practicing in for the day before evening performances. She couldn’t help but let her mind wander about Yusei. He felt like what a home should be to her, warmth, in the arms of a man she met two days ago. She pinched herself out of her daze so then she could get to the river to bathe. Even though she bathed at the house she was a bit paranoid that Divine would notice the slightest detail was off. After all he had been running this place for.. who knows how long really. Even she wasn’t sure how long he was running the circus for. She gathered her clothes and sprinted through the hills to the lake. She disrobed her clothes except for the necklace Yusei had given her. That was something she didn’t want to risk being stolen and pawned for money by her co-workers, she didn’t know them very well but it was a dog eat dog types of relationships that were still prevalent in her workplace. <em>Especially </em>if someone’s contract was ending soon.</p><p>As she finished up, she dressed into her practice clothes before some of the other women had started to arrive. She snuck around the women to get back into camp, who knows what sort of resentment that’s harbored towards her as the grumblings and ranting of Divine’s name rose to her ears on her way back to camp. Playing it cool as possible with Divine was the best option for now, before the real hell started with him.</p><p>Divine sighed as performers had started warming up for practices. He flipped through the weekly schedule as he was keeping an eye out for Aki while perusing the field of rounding up performers for the first session. Even though he had her closely guarded for years, he started to mainly limit it to travel and outsiders if necessary. <em>After this stunt, I’m keeping her under lock and key, again. If she hasn’t shown up for practice today, I’m going to have to cancel practice and possibly tonight’s performance to properly look for her.. She should’ve been back by now at the very least. She’s going to pay for doing this to me at the last minute-</em></p><p>He let his gaze wander as something caught his eye. A flash of crimson hair weaved through the mass of tents like a little mouse being cautious. Though it was a little too late to be cautious now. He stopped in his path to calculate where the figure might move next.</p><p>“Judging by the setup of camp.. an alleyway might be.. “ He moved quickly to a stack of crates and whipped off the blanket covering it towards a storage type of area through the labyrinth, to find the crimson haired woman holding onto the other end of the fabric.</p><p>“Here!” She became flustered as she was caught but knew that she had to keep a straight face. He gave a nasty smile to her, with a bit of anger behind the words he mustered out as he let go of the fabric to grasp his hands together.</p><p>“ Why, hello Aki!” She froze in her tracks with her eyes widening with terror as the mouse had been caught into a trap; squirming to break free, as everything was processing in her mind. He then walked over to her and gave her a tight hug as he started to toy with her emotions again. Her heart started to beat against the caged walls of her ribs, hoping that the sound would alert for help.</p><p>“ I was so worried about you! I couldn’t sleep at night knowing you were out there all alone in the woods! For all<em> I</em> knew, you were a goner! I didn't know what <em>I</em> was going to do without <em>you</em>! ” She felt a sense of rising guilt build into her but she suppressed it down a bit.</p><p>“ I-” He hugged her a bit tighter with a hidden smirk as she stiffened with a fluster.</p><p>“I was out searching for you <em>day</em> and <em>night!</em> I couldn’t sleep with my little mouse roaming through the woods, with the good chance that you were <em>devoured</em> by <em>those monsters</em>” She slowly returned his tight hug, before starting to search for the quickest way to her tent. Divine giving hugs, was odd for him, she has never seen him as a hugger. Spitting venom at other performers was his main thing based on her observations, being nice? Apologizivative? It seemed odd that he was constantly nice to her, but this niceness was different.</p><p>“ I wanted to apologize to the way I behaved towards you but when Misty had told me you had left, all by yourself-”</p><p>She was very confused “But Misty-“</p><p>“ Was very concerned about you! She told me everything.” A sense of uneasiness sink into her soul, as he hugged her tighter. He released her as her guilt was starting to hold her hostage again.</p><p>“I-I need to get to practice Divine” She tried to push past him, but stopped in her tracks as he spoke, “I will want to see you before the performance Aki. We’re going to discuss your contract.” She felt her heart skip a beat, <em>is .. is he going to release me from my contract early? But why would he do that? </em></p><p>“You should get to practice Aki.. You wouldn’t want to be punished for being late, now would you?”</p><p>He gave a slight smirk as he headed through the opposite tents weaving his way through the cloth alleys.</p><p>
  <em> That’s exactly what you’re getting later. Whether you want it or not.</em>
</p><p>She stood there for a moment before forcing her body to move. <em>I’m not sure what’s coming but I don’t think it’s any good.</em> Practice went off without a hitch, though Toby wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Misty was a bit worried, but he had insisted that Divine was giving him extra lessons on his power, as he had ‘potential’ according to Divine. Toby refused to tell Misty what act he’d be performing as he wanted to keep it a surprise.</p><p>As the sun started to set, Misty had started to take a walk around the grounds, it normally calmed her nerves before a big performance. As she expected, there were flyers over the main cages of the animal trains closest to the edge of the grounds, advertising for a ’special show’. She shook a bit as she knew exactly who the star was going to be for this night. To warn Aki would be disastrous for Divine’s show, as it wouldn’t give the ‘authentic show’ of traumatizing performers. She could only pray that Aki would realize the sign that she was in the firing range.</p><p>Aki on the other hand walked into Divine’s office all ready for the night's performance. For once, she was allowed to wear the hoop skirt underneath her dress or opt for something less.. bright. Moreover he was encouraging the latter option rather than the former, as she stood in front of him. More so insisting that she change since she had missed two days worth of practices, and will have to sit out for this weekend’s performance. Her gaze dripped a bit with shame, but not a lack of remorse. <em>No performing, no anxiety... Right?</em> His eyes focused on the new tattoo that was on her forearm as the makeup had started to sweat off from her grip on her arm.</p><p>“Aki.. I’m sure you know the rules about having ink.. right?” She quickly brought her arm behind her back and gave a confused look</p><p>“What? This? This is just a drawing on my arm! Why on earth would I get a tattoo?”</p><p>He dropped the topic as he made a note in the corkboard of his mind. Tattoos weren’t exactly kosher with Divine, unless it brought a usefulness to the lineup.</p><p>
  <em>My, my.. You've really had been a bad girl. Who changed your soul while you were gone?</em>
</p><p>His eyes wandered elsewhere as he covered the basics of her contract and avoided questions about any chance of early releasure.. Despite the fact that he wanted to discuss her contract. As he finished up his business and dismissed her as he reached down to the bottom drawer at his desk he pulled out a small bottle paired with a cloth.</p><p>
  <em>You left me with no choice. You made me do this..</em>
</p><p>He stared at the bottle for a good few minutes before starting to take the cork out of the top of the unused bottle as he transferred the clear liquid to the cloth.</p><p>Yusei had been out for awhile. He slept through most of the day as his sleep schedule was screwed up. He woke to the evening as he was an instinctive night owl and apparently through the repair Crow had attended to the house. As he laid on the bed, he wanted to see her again. Maybe perform one day,<em> that’s unrealistic, why would she willingly do that for me? It’s something she was forced into.</em> <em>It wouldn’t be right of me to ask her.</em> He gave out a sigh as he continued to stare at the ceiling. It had been a while since he had a connection with anyone, he had Crow and the twins, but this was a deep connection, one that ran through his veins and straight through to his heart. Ruka and rua were playing with the toys that Crow had given them a few days ago. With them being children, they were quite entertained. Ruka still couldn’t help but feel bothered by Aki’s reaction from the board. Crow wouldn’t let either one of them touch the journal she had about the board either. Crow claimed that the content was ‘too old for them to handle’ within the journals but she’d rather judge for herself on that.</p><p>As the night crept far into the sky from beyond the horizon, his blue eyes widened as his mark was glowing before gripping his arm from the invisible bear trap that was clamping at his arm. Crow could shake off his pain as minor, but it was a little hard to just simply ignore it whether it was coincidence that it was happening at the same time or not was beyond him. Crow started to yell for Aki to come down the stairs before the two of them realizing that she was no longer with them. The duo looked at each other through pain before the solution was fitting together as the pieces of the puzzle started to fit into each other. Knowing what they had to do, Yusei and Crow had taken off into the fog in a direction that ‘felt’ right to Yusei.</p><p>“ Are you sure this is the right way Yus?”</p><p>“Yes, I’m positive!”</p><p>
  <em>God I hope I’m right.</em>
</p><p>Neither one of them had brought a lamp with them so to plan their moves of the loose jagged earth beneath them was not an option. Faint music and chants of an audience could slowly get louder as lamps and the scents of kerosene faintly sprinkled the air. The striped fabric wasn’t familiar to Yusei, but it was a distant relic he could recognize.</p><p>The duo snuck through the maze of makeshift tents, being careful to not be caught by the guards to sneak in as the rally of cries echoes through the fields. As the silence started to fade at her waking up, from a bad dream her forehead hurt, she felt metal restraints preventing her from massaging her aching temples. Her honey brown eyes were bewildered as she was in the middle of the ring, finding hundreds of people rallying at the sight.. Of her. The panic took over as she could see that the solid ground was no longer making contact to her feet. Her arms and legs were restrained against rusted cuffs on a giant spinning wheel.. Meant for knife throwing. Divine brought attention to the blood thirsty crowd. His ringleader’s outfit wasn’t exactly flashy, but it was one of the more practical pieces of clothing he had owned. Focusing for any sort of vegetation was not in the question as a migraine captivated her mind.<em>What happened?.. One minute I was getting dressed into looser clothes and.</em>.</p><p>Her honey eyes felt the reek of betrayal as Divine approached her. He was practically breathing into her neck as he whispered into her ear “ You<em> made</em> me do this Aki. You left me with no choice <em>but</em> to set an example of <em>you</em> for the others.”</p><p>She flinched a little at his words and at his touch before trailing back to the crowd to encourage their yells for bloodshed. Individual calls normally didn’t bother her “ SLAUGHTER THE FREAK”, “ HANG EM” were normal to hear during these types of shows, but she was in the wings when these happened, not the center star. Divine soaked up all the words, in a way he bathed in the attention of those put to shame for disobeying him. Sickening and disturbing yes, but it was something he reveled in, it brought him a power that allowed him to exist and rival others. In control within a society that rejected him and others like him.</p><p>“JUDGEMENT DAY HAS COME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!” With his arms wide out, he started to explain her crimes as the executioner that he was, silencing the crowd as the trial awaited finally started. Any remorse he had was purely justified within his sou, evidently filled the air with his booming voice. </p><p>"My star! Had decided to revolt!.. <em>Rebel!</em> Knowing <em>full well</em> that these are the consequences, by endangering all of<em> you</em> here tonight!” The crowd wrapped around his declaration of betrayal as soaking up every word, reading into each movement deciding the fate of her body.</p><p>“What! Should I do with her?”</p><p>He may have been asking the crowd but he fully well knew what he was doing, the illusion of choice was a powerful mind game. The crowd murmured amongst themselves as the jury decided their answer, before a voice stuck out breaking the glass of whispers “ PUNISH HER!”</p><p>“ It’s time everybody! For..” Divine purposely drifted off as the crowd started to chant as the choir started to become uniformed in itself.</p><p>“PUN-ISH-MENT! PUN-ISH-MENT! PUN-ISH-MENT! PUN-ISH-MENT! PUN-Ish..”</p><p>The jury had spoken.</p><p>The crowd's chants and clappings became a ritual that she started to block out, as her attention was brought to a woman stopping in front of her, holding knives. Aki swallowed her nerves as it came for her to face the facts about this show, the only expression Aki could see before the clicking of metals and springs to meet with everything starting to spin; was remorse and sadness. Misty closed her eyes as a tear shed down her face, <em>I’m sorry Aki. I couldn’t help you</em>. It wasn’t before long before Divine slapped her shoulder as the familiar devious grin reappeared on to his face,</p><p>“ You heard the crowd. We can’t keep them waiting now, can we? For your <em>brother’s</em> sake..The show <em>must</em> go on.”</p><p>Misty took a deep breath before she started to throw the five knives she was given to Aki’s captive body. Two landed nowhere in harm's way, but her aim was a little too good as one hit straight into her thigh, causing her to scream in agony inflaming the jeers of the audience. Her mark then started to glow, through her sporadic breaths of trying to silence her pain. The audience had been focused on the red glow, whispering about what was exactly going on. Misty couldn’t slow down, so she had to throw the other two. Another one landed in her shoulder, and the other in her other thigh, the glow not letting up. She screamed as the crowd cheered for her live on slaughter as another Tuesday night comedy. Aki, could feel the spinning slow down as her eyesight had started to refocus into a straight lined vision. She could feel the knives that pierced her flesh be pulled out slowly as if she was losing her baby teeth again. Divine gave out a nervous laugh, before giving out a declaration of hope to the audience that doubled as one of fear into her heart.</p><p>“The punishment is<em> far</em> from over! In Fact, it’s only begun!” Divine signaled one of the other performers to come to him as he took a rope-like object from their hands, before he stretched it out to be a leather whip. Her eyes widened in fear as she couldn’t do much of anything. Misty wanted to stop Divine, but it would only make things worse if she interfered. Instead she turned away, as the first crack of the whip hit the flesh of the captive performer causing a reaction from her mark. No amount of makeup was going to be able to cover it up. The crowd let their insults loose into her veins as Divine let the whip hit her arms and her thighs, it would at least weaken her a bit to where she couldn’t run away without breathing pain. He then released her from her restraints and shoved her onto the brushed dirt. Her migraine wasn’t going away as she desperately tried to call to the earth to help her. <em>Why can’t I connect with the Earth?-</em> Her thoughts were quickly interrupted as the crack of the whip struck against her body as she screamed in pain, with blood staining the edges of the open tears in her clothes. The pain being fresh every time the whip cracked down.</p><p>The duo outside the main tent couldn’t help but listen to the jeers of the crow, the cracking of a whip and the shrieks of a familiar voice inside. Yusei’s mark was visibility glowing, although he was sweating a bit from the pain he was trying to hide.</p><p>“We have to get in there.” He kept his voice to a whisper as he started to move before Crow held him back in protest, “We can’t go in there! She’s in the middle of a show. If we take her, he’s going to look for her again.” He wanted to defend his immediate action, but in a way he was right. If we could only get her out of there, god- his thoughts were interrupted as another shriek emitted from the main tent. Yusei just had enough before Crow had to tackle him to the ground,</p><p>“You fucking idiot! I want to get her out of there as much as you do, but we can’t. There’s too many people around! If he gets ahold of you, then there’s no way we’ll be able to rescue her later on.”</p><p>“You’re saying we should wait as she suffers?”</p><p>“ Do<em> you</em> have any other options that won’t land us in a jailhouse and you on death row?”</p><p>Yusei gave a blank stare, as he didn’t have an answer. He could only seeth in pain as his mark was trapping his arm again, the boa constrictor that won’t stop. He quickly looked around, he spotted two guards sitting around a campfire, on break. Yusei and crow, pointed to the two and started to whisper in a plan. It wasn’t before long that they two choked, and made sure the two were out for the night minimally before taking their uniforms and robes. Yusei could feel a primal energy awaken in him as the bruised and slightly bloodied bodies at their feet start to bother them.</p><p>That train of thought was interrupted by Yusei’s pain returning with a vengeance with the glowing mark. He had enough layer overneath to minimally cover it to avoid suspicion but the pain was taking a toll on him. He blocked out half of Divine’s voice echoing through the fields. His attention quickly looked back to Aki’s screams, as he pulled up his hood before briskly walking to the light peeking out from the opening. From what the two could see, Aki was on the ground holding her head, her clothes, damaged and stained with some blood, exposing her back with a fresh AM letter, cinged into her left shoulder. She wept as Divine held her to the crowd, showing her off as a prize waiting to be won.</p><p>“This is a lesson she <em>won’t</em> forget!” She couldn’t look at the crowd as they tore into her, applause and laughter. He looked at her with sorrowful eyes but with an unmatching smile.</p><p>“ You brought this upon yourself Aki, if you had only listened to me you wouldn’t be in this position.”</p><p>He dropped her back to the ground, she couldn’t help but cry through her pain as her thoughts wandered. Her mark’s glow started to fade, returning to the normal shade of red, relieving Yusei of his pain gasping for air and crow trying to keep him quiet.</p><p>
  <em>All I did was stay two nights away from camp.. Do I really deserve this?..</em>
</p><p>Through her tears, Misty ran over to her to help her up from the ground before lifting her arm onto Misty’s shoulder to help her out of the main tent as the performance had started to transition to another act. The crowd’s venom kept piercing through the open wounds in her back. Both of the boys had straightened their posture as the two women made their way out into the residential areas of the circus. Misty gave an angry glance at the two and tightened her grip on Aki before she protested in pain, thinking they were with Divine. Aki could walk a little, but her muscles ached as her wounds screamed for healing in her muscles, there was no way she was going to be able to perform for the next two performances.</p><p>The duo had followed the women to Aki’s tent, where she stumbled and let herself fall against her table as a means of support in her tent. Misty had brought some gauze with her although it was maybe enough for a few of the major open wounds, not much of anything else. Divine never kept a lot of medical supplies on hand, <em>“each performance is perfection, the summer season is meant for refinement not for practice”</em> it was an attitude Divine needed to drop before someone got seriously hurt. Aki sobbed as she clutched the necklace under her dress trying to give herself some support to calm herself, as Misty lit a small kerosene lamp.</p><p>Outside, Yusei made a dash before Crow could stop him from entering to give Aki some space. She carefully undid what was left of Aki’s blouse to give an illusion that she had dignity left, she didn't have to undo a corset thankfully which spared misty some frustration. Misty wrapped gauze around the fresh ‘x’ shape whip scars left on her back, it was going to scar.  Aki had smaller fresh wounds on her back but the small ones would likely disappear. She did her best to be gentle to Aki to place gauze on the fresh mark, but Aki let the tears roll down her face as she bit her lip hard, trying not to yell out. Misty could only sympathize, thankful that Divine didn’t put herself and Aki in that position.</p><p>
  <em>There’s no way she’s going to be able to perform, she’s going to be hurting for a while.. Without antiseptic, she’ll likely get an infection out here.</em>
</p><p>Misty had wrapped a blanket around her bare shoulders and laid Aki on her stomach, with much of herself exposed as her back was going to hurt for a while. The whip marks on her legs were going to be a different story, those were relatively light comparatively, why she didn’t change out of her performance skirt was beyond her. She gave a soft sigh as Aki whimpered in pain from her other wounds not paying attention to the whispers outside.</p><p>“ Oi’ Yus this isn’t-”</p><p>“ I’m sure it is Crow-” Misty was confused as she didn’t know who was outside, or why they were here. Yusei was standing in an impatient stance as his morals strictly guided him to not go into a room without being invited in, he could sometimes give himself exceptions to blend in or under assumptions, but this was absolutely one time that he could not bend those rules.</p><p>“ Hey! Who’s out there?”</p><p>The two boys panicked as they absolutely did <em>not</em> think this one through. Through mumbling and a few slaps, Misty gave a sigh as she started to head towards the split in the tent to tell off Divine’s goons; although through their roughhousing, Crow had landed into Misty by accident. Crow, embarrassed, straightened himself up apologizing as Misty slapped him. Aki laughed a little, as she held a better grip on her blanket, covering her exposed breasts to maintain decency.</p><p>“ Crow.. is Yusei with you?”</p><p>She couldn’t help but give a smile. Crow gave his attention to Aki but looked away to not embarrass her as he was turning into a beet. “U,uh yeah! He is.” Crow covered his face as he looked away from her, full well knowing his ass was going to be kicked later.</p><p>“ If you two would excuse me for a moment and let me put on a blouse you two can come in”</p><p>Crow excused himself outside and looked up at the stars. Yusei relaxed a bit at the voice of her voice, keeping an eye out making sure that no one else approached them. Yusei punched Crow on the shoulder before they started to bicker a bit between each other. A few moments passed as Aki changed into a pale blue blouse, with her performance skirt still on. The duo entered taking their hoods down, Misty still didn’t know who these two hooligans were or how they knew her as she had never seen these two before. Still she kept a defensive position over Aki,“ Misty, don’t worry I trust these two.. Even if they are dumbasses.”</p><p>Misty wasn’t convinced, there was something off about Yusei, he didn’t have cold sunken eyes or anything but he certainly wasn’t one of this world. Aki took notice of her doubts, “ Yusei helped me when we.. were separated the other night. They let me stay and recover-” Aki straightened up, as Divine’s laughter could be heard close by. She gestured for the two to put their hoods up and go out of her tent. The two obeyed and rushed out, as Divine approached as his brow furrowed against his green eyes. “ Say.. I don’t remember assigning you two out here.” The both of them kept their voices steady as they painfully dropped an octave.</p><p>“Well-uh sir, y-you wanted us here b-before she came back <em>so</em>, when-” He held his hand up to cut them off,</p><p>“ You boys are doing a <em>wonderful</em> job. Keep up the good work. I’m going to need you to step away for a minute. I have some.. <em>Business</em> to discuss with Miss Aki.” They gave a salute, which awarded a puzzled look form Divine before shaking his head, as the boys started to fake their way to leave.</p><p>Divine brushed the fabric aside, and Misty gave him a soured look. He blatantly ignored her look, “ Misty dear, maybe you should be using gauze on her wounds instead of.. Y'know, nothing?”</p><p>Misty crossed her arms, letting the tips of her fingers tap her arms in an irritated manner, before gazing back to him with leering eyes, “Well.. Maybe if we had adequate supplies, I could apply more gauze on her open wounds. There was only had enough for her back.” Divine scoffed and pushed Misty aside as he refocused to his main prize, Aki. He sat down to match her level as she crept back. Nervous of what he was going to do next, he set his hands out with his palms facing upwards as he sat down onto the earth.</p><p>“ Aki. I <em>had</em> to put that show on tonight. You didn’t come back and you were missing for two days.”</p><p>Before he rambled on any further he gave a comment to Misty to leave temporarily for private business. Misty hesitantly left, but instead went out to find those two boys from earlier. He turned back to her once she left, Aki couldn’t meet his eyes, as she kept her protests to herself.</p><p>He sighed, “I had to make an example out of you, to keep everyone else in line. Do you realize how much chaos you caused while you were gone?” he placed his hand on her chin and forced her to keep eye sight with him.</p><p>Misty had caught the two around a few bushes near Aki’s tent, trying to listen in on the conversation. She was about to call them out before Crow yanked her down into the dirt as Crow whispered to her, “shhh we’re trying to listen!” The three could see silhouettes from the dim lamp Misty had lit earlier. Inside Aki felt her throat dry up, “Th-they wouldn’t, most of the performers don-” He squeezed her soft cheeks as her jaw clenched.</p><p>“ Aki. Your departure caused chaos here. A stunt like this by anyone else would’ve rendered them..” He had to think about it for a second</p><p>“well.. <em>Unemployed</em>.” Aki gulped, she could sense him leaning in and in response she crawled back. He turned to look at her wounds, “ How are they?”</p><p>“ Um.. it-it should be fine-” he touched one of her open wounds as she flinched with tears welling in her eyes, nearly screaming. His brow arched, as that was clearly not fine.</p><p>“ You’re not going to practice. Clearly you need time to heal.”</p><p>He sighed as he got up, turning his back to her. “ And from this. I considered releasing you early, but you ruined that chance.” She couldn’t look at him as she was reveling in her guilt. Misty made her way out of the bush as she could see Divine’s silhouette disappearing.</p><p>“I hope you learn something from this Aki.”</p><p>He left her tent without another word.<em> I was so close to freedom. And yet .. I ruined it</em>.</p><p>As she stumbled out of the bush; taking the twigs and leaves out of her hair, she started to run after Divine. She caught up to him as the two boys snuck into Aki’s tent under the fabric. Aki almost screamed, but stopped herself since it was just Crow and Yusei.</p><p>“ Aki, are you-what happened? Why-” He was trying his best to be gentle with her, as he inspected her wounds with his gloved hands. She stopped him from touching her, “Yusei,I-I’m okay.”</p><p>Her vision blurred from her tears, his expression changed to concern as he started to wipe away her tears. She still held her head as her migraine was still not going away. Yusei felt powerless in a sense, healing was not in his speciality. He could figure out the inner workings of infrastructure and other machinery if given enough hours to tinker with it, but chemistry?</p><p>“Divine. She needs to get to a doctor!”</p><p>“I can’t have her running off again Misty!” Divine shoved her away as he made his way back to his tent. She sped up to block his path.</p><p>“Would you rather risk her getting an infection from your short sightedness?”</p><p>He stayed silent as he stopped in his tracks, she started to add on “ She needs medical attention-”.</p><p>He gave out a sigh. “<em>Fine</em>.” He turned back to her</p><p>“But you’re going to go with her.” She nodded as she turned back. “Be sure to bring guards with you.” Misty ran back to Aki’s tent with some good news for Aki. She ran on in, “Aki! We’re getting you to a doctor.” Aki turned to Misty and breathed a sigh of relief, before giving a sound of worry.</p><p>“But.. Who’s going to be awake at this time of night?”</p><p>Her fears were cut short as Crow butted in, “I know someone.. Who at leasts knows someone who’s willing to help.. But they’re in the Satellite work district.” Aki nodded to Misty, willing to make the trip to get some sort of medical attention.</p><p>“ I can get two horses.. But I don’t think you’re going to be able to hold yourself up.. Can you?” Aki straightened her back, whatever mending her body had done had split back open a bit, “Ahh nope!” As she curled back to huddle. Misty sighed, “I can’t carry her and handle a horse at the same time. Cleaning off a supply cart will take too much-”</p><p>“ Well it’s all we got!-” Crow threw his hands in the air as he bickered with Misty.</p><p>“Actually-” Yusei silenced the arguing duo with his words. Yusei looked at Misty in the eye with a glint in them.</p><p>“ -I’ve got a better idea.” Yusei started to look for Aki’s board and her deck on the table nearest to him. “ Aki, do you still have your board and your cards?” “Yes but-” she let herself straighten back out a bit confused.</p><p>“ Perfect. Where is it?” His blue eyes glinted a bit as his plan was coming together.</p><p>“ Um.. it should be in the middle drawer of .. this dresser” Her finger extended to guide Yusei to the dresser right in front of her. He reached for the middle drawer and pulled it out. He searched through her things to find her board and her deck before handing it to her. She grabbed her board and activated it with her touch. Yusei held out his hand to her as she gratefully accepted, she took out one of her cards as he stopped her.</p><p>“ no no, we could use mine.” She was quite puzzled.</p><p>
  <em> What card does he have? Can he use it with my board?. Wait.. How does he have a card that can work with my board and know about the materialization?</em>
</p><p>Yusei guided her out of the tent, although the grass stabbed into her open wounds around her legs.</p><p>“ Yusei, how do you have a card that can work with my board?”</p><p>Yusei gave a smirk, “ I never said that I had a card that will work. I said we<em> could</em> use mine. I don’t think the monsters you have will be big enough for all four of us to carry.” Aki was confused, Black Rose dragon was big and could fly but she didn’t know the carrying power her monster could handle. Yusei pulled out the card of his jacket, it looked similar to her Black Rose dragon in appearance as a dragon. She knew that Divine sold trinkets like these to generate revenue, many other circuses did but they were just collectibles. <em>T</em></p><p>
  <em>hese can’t actually work can they? I’ve heard that only my cards were compatible with my board.</em>
</p><p>She wasn’t sure if an off brand card could actually work on her disk despite being able to bring monsters to life. He extended his reach to give the card to her. </p><p>"For now I want you to hold onto this, when it’s time we can summon it. I.. wouldn’t want your boss seeing this card. It’s not meant for many to see.”</p><p>Answering with a nod she inspected the glimmering white bordered card.</p><p>
  <em>It is like my Black Rose dragon.. But, his is different-</em>
</p><p>her thoughts were cut short as her feet were no longer making contact to the ground rather they were in the air, as she was instead in his arms. She may not have felt his heartbeat, but he had a different kind of warmth to him. She was careful to not lose his card with her disk activated and ready to go.</p><p>“ Oi crow! You ready to get outta here?” Crow gave a smile and a thumbs up, Misty sighed as she tagged along to trio leaving the camp to the darkened woods ahead. Divine on the otherhand had his own plans. As he sat down in his office he pulled out Misty's contract, an ink well with matching pen. He lit his kerosene lamp so he could see. As he started to read her contract he dipped the gentle pen into the well as he started to write a simple word and a date on her contract.</p><p>
  <em>Well Misty, I hope you are prepared to take your brother home. Because you and him are not coming back. I can't afford to loose Aki again.</em>
</p><p>As he signed the date, he broke the nib of his pen. As he was putting away his documents, Toby entered through the slit fabric of Divine's office. </p><p>"Y-you wanted to see me, sir? " Divine perked up at Toby's voice. </p><p>"Yes! I wanted to give you one final practice session!" </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Into the Satellite work district</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Aki is getting the care she needs and Crow had a lead on the disappearing children.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Please read and review!</p><p>I do not own or am associated with yu-gi-oh!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The four made it into the woods far from the camp they “rescued” Aki and Misty out of for a short period of time. She held her breath as the wind would hit against her fresh wounds. The pain kept her awake and a bit worried. I can’t stay there. I must leave. But where would I go?.. Neo Domino would just send me back to him.</p><p>
  <em> If I go to the outskirts I would only be endangering everyone there. It’s already a frail town as it is.</em>
</p><p>Gripping the card she bit her lip from the shearing pain reminding her of mistakes that weren't her fault, but was responsible for. She took in comfort from the person carrying out this ‘mission’. He held her gently but with enough grip to keep her from falling into the earth. With the circus out of sight the three stopped to catch their breath.</p><p>Misty crossed her arms as she questioned these two men that she didn’t get to fully quite meet and stole robes off the backs of other workers. Misty still didn’t remotely trust these two hooligans she met under a few hours ago. But she was ready to defend herself with a dagger she kept as a heirloom from her father, if they were to try anything. Yusei inspected her board she had equipped to her arm. He wasn’t sure why she had it equipped and activated when it was clearly causing her pain, but he wasn’t going to argue with someone who had been humiliated in front of an audience at her own expense.</p><p>“ You ready?”</p><p>She nodded as she placed the card Yusei had given to her against her board as she squeezed her eyes shut in anxiety. Here goes nothing.. With a brief flash of a blinding light shimmering diamonds of light began to cluster to form a bright dragon. Not a stationary one, but one that inhaled the oxygen that the three of them had lost. Yusei couldn’t help but smile in mesmerization of the beautiful creature, as he truly was alive. Crow was at a loss of words, before he started to search for a journal to take notes.</p><p>Misty and Aki were still processing the sight of the dragon, this dragon was real like Aki’s dragon but shone with a different light than Aki’s. Much like a beacon of hope, the light at the end of a long winding tunnel perhaps? She instantly reached out to touch the dragon, as to give it a coaxing before giving a command to bring a gale before the audience for their pleasure. The dragon gave a snarl before lessening its defense as his card holder recognized him, allowing Aki to touch him.</p><p>“What’s his name?”</p><p>“ Stardust. My father gave the card that held his spirit to me when I was young and he still had a square head on his shoulders. ”</p><p>She murmured the dragon's name again in amazement before looking back at her disk to see if the processing power was failing through the vibrant colors lighting through the gaps. <em>Hm.. there’s no difference from when I summon my dragon..</em></p><p>She glanced back up to the dragon staring into its yellow eyes, giving a sense of hope in her soul. Yusei kept smiling, and he felt his soul intake the warmth. He forced himself out of it as he spoke softly in latin to the dragon as it lowered its body to the ground cohesively. He let Aki climb on, before letting himself climb on. The other two approached the dragon, but gave a defensive stance before Yusei calmed him down by gently brushing the dragon's scales.</p><p>“Stardust, they’re with me, it’s okay.”</p><p>The dragon let its tension release before letting the two climb on and given a signal to rise up into the night. Back at camp Divine was mildly disturbed by the two guards who were stripped of their clothes.. With bruises and a few scratches on their bodies. Sneering at the two guards bitterly, as they tried to defend themselves. A visual clue clicked in his head of the two he previously had seen guarding Aki’s quarters. He kept that as a small note to the corkboard of conspiracy in his mind. Relently, he smacked the two of them before screaming at them to properly dress themselves. But his attention was quickly averted as the yelling of a dragon caught his attention from the other workers who were still awake. He quickly turned around, he couldn’t see who was on the dragon as it was too far away, but it was a marvelous sight to see against the reflections of the night sky. <em>I want to know who owns that damn creature.. It would be a fine addition to Aki’s dragon.. It might be enough to keep this place afloat.</em></p><p>He snapped back to reality as Toby called back over to Divine over by the main tent. His plans returned to the forefront of his mind, with a sword in one hand and a bottle of brandy in the other. The two headed into the main tent as Toby lit one of the dim kerosene lamps.</p><p>Through the cold night wind, it didn’t take quite long to reach Neo Domino. A much shorter journey than by foot, they landed at least a couple miles from an empty entrance to sneak into the Satellite work district on foot. Crow, if out of anyone, knew the streets best as he was constantly in and out of the district as a “freelancer”. Yusei could feel his hands becoming damp from her blood soaking through her gauze. The scent of iron wasn’t quite prominent to others, but to him it was a high that was starting to get overwhelming, a moth to a flame. Letting his eyes dilate, indulging in being so close and so near to fresh blood.</p><p>He just wanted one little taste.</p><p>A smidge of her blood to get him through the next 200 years.</p><p>Or yet just a taste of <em>her</em>.</p><p>His eyes snapped back to normal as Crow nudged him hard to snap him back to reality.</p><p>“ You gettin' tired yus’?”</p><p>Yusei shook his head, “You know me Crow, I <em>live</em> for the night.. I just hope we get there soon.”</p><p>Crow gave a smile, and pointed to the broken fence leading into an alley, “C’mon we’re almost there.”</p><p>The stagnant air of smoke took the fresh air out of their lungs. Misty and Aki, coughed a bit as they weren’t used to the heavy smoke air of the industrial revolution. Crow pulled out two handkerchiefs and handed it to the two women.</p><p>“ Here it’ll help filter out some of the smoke. It seems that you two really aren’t used to it.”</p><p>Misty took the piece of cloth and held it over her nose, as Aki held hers crudely over her face before letting herself close her eyes to rest. The wind picked back up again, as the four started to traverse through the streets of Satellite. Much of the streets were silent or held much of the drunks in the gutters. Yusei did his best to resist the scent of iron wrecking havoc into his mind, as he suddenly came to a stop.</p><p>“ Crow, or Misty, I need you to hold Aki for a minute” The two stopped and turned around as she rushed to grab her co-worker. Yusei felt heat still prominent in his cheeks, much feverish, but just needed to keep moving, to not think about the fresh blood that is right in front of him. Misty offered to take Aki for a moment, she felt the gauze sticky and wet, before becoming a bit hot headed at Yusei. Aki let out a small hiss of pain at Misty’s touch but still left her eyes closed.</p><p>“ Why didn’t you say anything?!”</p><p>Yusei took off the cloak he had “borrowed” and wrapped Aki in it before taking her back from Misty’s arms.</p><p>“ Don’t you–”</p><p>Yusei gave a soft sigh, cursing a bit under his breath, being careless, for letting that side get to him; nearly losing it in front of everyone.</p><p>“ I didn’t realize that it had soaked through until I checked a bit ago. Crow, how much longer do we have?”</p><p>Crow gave a soft sigh, “ it’s not much farther, from here. Martha’s not going to take too kindly for us crashing late”</p><p>Yusei gave a small chuckle,</p><p>“ I’m sure she won’t mind Crow. After all she <em>did</em> have to raise you.”</p><p>Crow pretended to get offended and smacked him on the shoulder as the two shared a laugh, the group continued to head through the quiet streets with the occasional glares from the drunks that are still awake from the silence. Misty felt completely out of her element in this shamble of a town. She’s never been out of Neo Domino except with Divine.</p><p>So she kept close to the boys, checking up on Aki to make sure she was still responsive, but clearly displeased with their careless banter as if they were <em>forgetting</em> that Aki was bleeding <em>right in his hands</em>.</p><p>Yusei was visibly struggling to keep a hold of himself, and tried to distract himself by talking. Crow took note of this and started to slip out a crucifix incase that he really needed it and gripped in his right hand. Behind the two she took note of the reflective object in his hand, and slowly kept a grip to her dagger tied to her belt, she wasn’t sure if it was made out of pure silver or not, but she was going to find out if it was. Crow’s gaze relaxed at the familiar structure buried between two other complexes.</p><p>“ We’re here!”</p><p>A quaint little brick building, seemingly connected to the other two structures as the faint glows of kerosene softly lit the windows. A few mice had skipped their way up the fire escape mounted to the front of the building, leaving metallic pats of their movement echoing through the night. Crow bit his lip as he gently rapped on the oak door, he had a feeling that Martha wasn’t going to be happy coming here late at night. He waited a few minutes before knocking again. He released his breath as the door clicked and opened, as his foster mother; tired, perked up in irritation at the sight of him.</p><p>Although that irritation was short-lived as she noted the two strangers. Clearly noticing the Arcadia’s Movement uniforms, she had <em>many</em> questions. Taking a step out looking for the coast to be clear; invited the four of them inside. Martha helped Aki onto her feet and took Yusei’s gloves as well as the uniform with her into another room. Crow headed to the phone mounted to the wall, dialed in a number and started to talk to the operator with urgency. Aki mainly used Martha as support as the two of them headed into a living area. A bit dilapidated for sure, but it would have to do.</p><p>“ Martha .. Was it? Thank you for taking us in. I know it’s late–“</p><p>“ Yusei and Crow jus don’t stop in by in the middle of the night just to chat now. They come to me when they know something is wrong."</p><p>She had Aki sit down, and lie down on a couch. Aki could feel the pain still vibrate around as she tried to find a spot that would be the least painful.</p><p>“ I know you and your friend who tagged along isn’t from this side of the city.”</p><p>She looked away, debating on letting out her plight. One wrong word and her contract would be “generously extended” if it circled back to camp. Aki hesitated, filing out what she could and couldn’t answer. It was a developed skill she’d learn from Divine, as he primarily ingrained automatic responses in her as well as the other performers during the beginning of the renewal and training week for newer performers.</p><p>Crow crept quietly through the halls, looking for Martha, knowing that the children in the orphanage are asleep. He felt that it would be best for yusei to stay back with Misty. At least talk to her to ease her up a bit. He could feel her stare burn into the back of his head and made him uncomfortable. Crow knew what he did best, and that was to leave it up to Yusei.</p><p>Much to Yusei’s displeasure.</p><p>Misty, kept her guard up. She may have met these hooligans at camp, and Aki may trust them completely. Crow seemed trustworthy, she on the other hand, didn’t trust Yusei, her suspicions rose further when some sort of insanity started to possess him earlier. It added on when Crow started to get tense and try to slip something out.</p><p>
  <em>I couldn’t see what it was, but it must’ve been a neutralizer of a sort.. He doesn’t look like a shapeshifter or really act like one. The last I’ve heard about vampires was before I came here to Neo Domino.</em>
</p><p>Yusei could feel her cold stare against him, stabbing at him to answer an invisible question to her that he can’t quite answer. Or at least he knows that she won’t kill him.</p><p>With Aki it was pretty easy, he helped her, at least temporarily and started to bond with him. Misty on the other hand, didn’t seem to want to associate herself with him. Rather that he had murdered right in front of her and he had cursed her family line for three generations. The silence between them didn’t bother him.</p><p>What bothered him was that he felt that he was being surveilled by her, despite the fact that he isn’t apart of the circus. Neither one of them wanted to talk, it was a deadlock for sure. But waiting in the dark with the clock counting away the seconds to morning was the only thing filling the silence.</p><p>To his surprise, she was the one to break it,</p><p>“ Yusei, was it?.. You’re not of this world.. <em>Are you</em>?”</p><p>Crow was able to give a wave to the two women. Aki who just looked like she was in pain gave a weak smile. He felt bad for her, she was stuck in circumstances she couldn’t quite escape. All because she was trained to pull off acrobatics and had a power that was rejected by normal society.</p><p>“ Martha, Dr. Smiditch should be over soon. I explained most of everything. Aki should be fine, but considering that Martha doesn’t have a lot of supplies on hand in the first place, he’s going to bring some over.”</p><p>Martha gave a soft smile, she was certainly tired but she considered Aki as one of her own. Just like Crow and Yusei, despite Yusei not living with her for a good chunk of his life.</p><p>“ Thank you Crow. Do me a favor and get an extra lamp for me. I don’t want to use the main lights this late at night.“ He gave a sigh, he really didn’t want to be the night’s errand boy. But it was for Martha so he couldn’t <em>exactly</em> say no. So he searched off into another room for a lamp. Martha turned back to Aki as she had brought some water for Aki.</p><p>“ I’m sorry I don’t have anything prepped for you, I wasn’t expecting anyone this late at night. Now.. what is it about Arcadia’s Movement?”</p><p>Aki gave a nod as she started to dive into most of her past experiences while sipping on some water. She left out some details, as she absolutely didn’t need anyone else worrying about her. She can take care of herself, she has too.</p><p>Crow was able to find a lamp in Martha’s room, as he started to head down the hall. As he passed by one of the ajar doors, he peeks in; To see rows of single beds with all the children sleeping soundly. He gave a soft smile before turning back, to head back downstairs.</p><p>Yusei gave a blank stare to Misty, “ And what of it if I am?”</p><p>Misty crossed her arms as her eyes narrowed. She was <em>not</em> in the mood for this.</p><p>“ I’ve had my fair share of occult experiences, Yusei. You don’t seem to be among the living.” Yusei straightened himself, uncomfortable. <em>Why is she bringing this up?</em></p><p>“ And why does that matter to you?” Misty slowly started to reach for something under her cloak.</p><p>“ I know that you aren’t human. I can’t quite prove it to everyone else, but I know something is <em>not</em> right with you."</p><p>Yusei kept his gaze on Misty, but he could see that she was planning something. <em>I need to stop this from escalating any further.</em></p><p>“ I don’t know why she has full faith in you after at least a day from meeting you. For all I know she could’ve been cursed from when we had been separated.”</p><p>She then started to pull out something further, before a series of knocks interrupted the two of them. Yusei did his best to not rush to the door to split from the interrogation session, but he did push himself towards the door a little fast from his momentum. He opened the door to a very tired Dr. Schmidt.</p><p>“I don’t do late house calls as frequently as I used to. Now then where’s my patient?”</p><p>...</p><p>“ Just head right over there Toby.”</p><p>The dim light already gave an eerily feel in the main tent. Toby could sense that something was off, but he wasn’t sure if it was that he was going against his sister’s orders. How could he go against her orders when he trusts the ring leader? Is it bad to trust him?</p><p>Divine brought out a  rapier of a sort, with the tip shaved a little bit off, but still sharp. It’s shine reflects off the glow off the dim lights from the lamp. He walked over to Toby, and sensed the tension from him, pretending to give a caring mask on as he handed the sword to Toby.</p><p>“ Hey what’s wrong ?”</p><p>Toby couldn’t look Divine in the eyes, the guilt plagued him. He rarely disobeyed his sister, as she was wiser than him only being able to prove her wrong very few times.</p><p>“ Are.. Are you sure this is safe for me to do?” Divine kneeled to the ground to lift Toby's chin to force to meet his gaze, giving a ‘comforting’ smile while his other hand was giving support on his shoulder.</p><p>“ Why of course! If I didn’t think you were up for this I wouldn’t even <em>think</em> to put you in such a position! You've been doing great at our sessions!”</p><p>Toby still needed some justification from Divine, clearly still not having confidence within himself.</p><p>“ Don’t tell me that you want to back out of this now, do you? That would disappoint me, do you<em> want</em> to disappoint me?.”</p><p>Toby gave a sigh, he put his feelings of being torn aside and gripped the sword.</p><p>“ I.. no sir..”</p><p>Divine gave a soft slap on his shoulder with a smile as he got back up to step backwards.</p><p>“ That’s my boy!.. Now, let’s get started !” Toby gave a smile as he started to shift his weight, a bit in nervousness.</p><p>“ One final reminder, sword swallowing, it can be dangerous, but very few actually die from this. Since you’re with me, that likely won’t happen. Can’t promise anything, liability y’know. But it’s not like you’d <em>know</em> that sort of thing–”</p><p>Toby furrowed his brow in confusion, as he literally had no idea what Divine was rambling on about, seeing that he was getting off track, he refocused.</p><p>“ Right, anyways!”</p><p>He pondered back to Toby, gently guiding his head backwards, with his chin towards the ceiling, to a hyperextended position.</p><p>“ You need to do this so your mouth, the esophagus, the pharynx are all lines up in a straight line. So you don’t choke and a hole isn’t slit through your insides. That <em>needs</em> to be ingrained in your system.”</p><p>Toby’s eyes widened a bit from that realization, wanting to sprint but he couldn’t cower out now! If he did there’s no chance of him earning a more advanced spot within his contract for slightly better pay before the move to Heartland city. He swallowed the spit accumulating in his throat, anxious of what was coming next.</p><p>“ Now, lean back and open your mouth, wide–”</p><p>“–This might hurt a bit” Aki bit her lip, with one of Martha’s good robes covering her chest for decency waiting for the impact from a newer medicine, well, antiseptic called hydrogen peroxide. Not much was known about it as it was fairly new in terms of usage but dr schmidt had done his own anecdotal reports on this experiment and his three patients he had tested it on, are still doing fine. Or so he claimed. Still she was willing to try something new over the carbolic acid.</p><p>She wasn’t sure if he was a quack or not, as she had never had even heard of him before. Divine had his own list of medical professionals for the circus. His reasoning was primarily that “ Normal doctors don’t understand psychic performers. We’re the entertainment for the gods” and seeing one outside of the assigned doctor's list was strictly forbidden unless absolutely necessary.</p><p>
  <em>He’s not going to be happy about this.</em>
</p><p>The peroxide, touching her gashes delicately held back screams as the cuts sizzled in pain. She gripped Martha’s hand for comfort, as Misty couldn’t help but feel useless. Through Aki’s whimpering, she felt herself drifting back to her little brother Toby, as whenever he got injured he did his best to stay strong for his sister.. Before crying his eyes out. Realizing that in her haste to help Aki, she had left him alone without a warning. That guilt crept up in her soul. Her fortune that Carly had given her, had also crossed her mind. But shook it off as coincidence, she had faith that her fears were just that, fears. Phantom stories in closets that don’t exist.</p><p>Crow and Yusei had started on washing the laundry in the kitchen, throwing in the soiled clothing of blood in a wash bin with water and baking soda. Yusei kept his voice low, to not attract attention,</p><p>“ Crow? “</p><p>Crow was restringing a taut line outside one of the windows</p><p>“ Yes dear?” Yusei rolled his eyes, as crow was making an ass of himself. Again.</p><p>“ Thanks.. For helping me back there.” Crow paused for a moment before giving a smile, </p><p>"Yus, you’re my brother. Of course I’m going to help you if you need it. You would do the same for me, Aki, and Misty.” Yusei kept a tight line from Misty’s name as he started to scrub the material against the wash bin.</p><p>“ She doesn’t trust me Crow. She was pretty close to pulling something on me.” Crow gave a sigh in disappointment.</p><p>“ Sometimes, that’s how–”</p><p>Yusei stopped for a minute, letting the material dive back into the murky bin.</p><p>“ She could see right through me, read me like a book. She <em>knows</em> Crow. She knows that I’m .. well,<em> y’know</em>..” He briefly gestured towards the other room where Aki was staying in. Crow was analyzing him, thinking how to comfort his friend, pulling a short stool out next to Yusei, both sitting in the kitchen.</p><p>“ Well, maybe she needs to know that you won’t turn on her and aki. You and I both know that we can reel each other in if one of us does something stupid. Those two are currently in dangerous circumstances, Aki for sure… I’m not sure about Misty. Maybe she might have a relative with her? Who knows? One thing’s for sure we need to get them out of there. You saw how they were at that performance tonight. Who knows what they’ll do next?”</p><p>Yusei nodded in acknowledgement, Crow let out a big breath and stood back up.</p><p>“ I’m gonna take a walk outside. Just figure out what to do next. I’ll at least be back by morning.. Care to join me?” Yusei shook his head as he continued to scrub out the stains.</p><p>“ nah, I should at least stay here.. In case Martha needs an extra hand around here.” Crow raised his brow at Yusei.</p><p>“ I’m completely <em>positive</em> that’s the reason you want to stay.” Yusei became a bit flustered and punched crow in the shoulder.</p><p>“ Easy big guy! I was only teasing!” Crow headed towards the door to head on out. Under the night sky in the streets of satellite he could breathe a bit easy. The stars weren’t super bright because of the pollution, but that didn’t quite matter to him. His footsteps echoed his own.. Until they didn’t.</p><p>What was mirroring his footsteps was right in front of him. A couple of children congregated around a tall cloaked figure in front of him. Crow rolled into the nearest alley way, letting the cloaked figure walk by with the group of children. As he got a good look, it wasn’t exactly the man that had been kidnapping those children, by the cloak had a sense of familiarity to them.</p><p>Unfortunately he couldn’t see a face as the darkness and poor lighting was not in his favor. The small children marched in perfect rows, as if they were soldiers, with their eyes having lost a sense of consciousness in them. Something is not right. This could be the man I very well have been hunting for months. He felt himself for weapons noting his gun that never left his side, with all six chambers full.</p><p><em>I don’t have enough time to go back to Martha’s.. I have to follow him and see where he goes</em>.</p><p>Crow started to sneak around the buildings tagging the cloaked figure and a horde of children followed him as little ducklings.</p><p>The sword had a perfect fit, but the pain was unnerving, he could handle one at the very least. It wasn’t something that he was used to quite at all, feeling how his body was responding to pain.</p><p>He couldn’t protest, couldn’t speak as Divine slowly slid another sword of the same size down his throat, smiling.</p><p>There was no way he was going to be able to fit another one down his throat, he had a hard time breathing and keeping steady as it was. Something felt that it was tearing his insides. Divine’s inner madman proudly displayed a spectacle in front of him, fully understanding why his sister couldn’t, nor wouldn't trust him.</p><p>Why she wanted to leave for Heartland as soon her contract was up. Why she was developing a plan to smuggle aki out of the circus, to stage a death and live by an alibi.</p><p>Seeing his memories of him and sister flashed through his mind, all of them, as he felt his body ascend when his gag reflex started to kick in. He reached for the swords to pull them out, but a force was holding down his wrists by his sides.</p><p>He had made a terrible, terrible mistake. </p><p>“ Your session isn’t finished Toby. You’re not done until<em> I say</em> you’re done.”</p><p>Divine, his smile had the grace of the cheshire cat.</p><p>Standing above him, pushing one of the swords down into his throat further down into his body, as his vision started to fade.</p><p>
  <em>Misty.. I'm sorry.. </em>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Oh this was something! A re-write for previous chapters are in the works as I'm just not satisfied with how I characterized Aki in the beginning. It feels very, cliche and that's not how I want to Aki to be. I may take this down and reformat it in a series of oneshots or I might keep the current format and add in some chapter to make it a consistent story, I haven't decided yet. But now that I'm writing more frequently I'm getting better(ish) at writing.<br/>I will also be adding to this chapter as well since I'm tired when I finished writing this. </p><p>I also learn about weird history pertaining to medical usage in the victorian era.</p><p>Sorry I haven't posted, I lost inspiration but I found it again and this got pretty hectic on my end.</p>
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